Background The responsiveness of a health system is considered to be an intrinsic goal of  health systems and an essential aspect in performance assessment. Numerous studies have analysed health system responsiveness and related concepts, especially across different countries and health systems. However, fewer studies have applied the concept for the evaluation of specific healthcare delivery s...

Despite the fact that, in the current debate, quality of life is depicted as something very desirable, its concept is seldom specified. With regard to previous research into welfare and quality of life, a model of an overall concept of quality of life is presented here. The theoretical analysis ends in and is woven into an empirical application. The application consists of a prospective longitu...

Exploiting Australia's National Service lotteries of 1965 to 1972, I estimate the effect of army service on employment outcomes. Population data from military personnel records, tax returns, veterans' compensation records, and the Census facilitate a rich and precise analysis, identified by 53,000 complying conscripts. The estimated employment effect is -12 percentage points (95% CI: -13, -11) ...

BACKGROUND To develop a prediction model that predicts disability in community-dwelling older people. Insight in the predictors of disability is needed to target preventive strategies for people at increased risk. METHODS Data were obtained from the Rotterdam Study, including subjects of 55 years and over. Subjects who had complete data for sociodemographic factors, life style variables, heal...

BACKGROUND In many developed countries, associations have been documented between higher levels of area unemployment and workforce exit, mainly for disability pension receipt. Health of individuals is assumed to be the primary driver of this relationship, but no study has examined whether health explains or modifies this relationship. METHODS We used data from 98 756 Office for National Stati...

Shiffman rightly raises questions about who exercises power in global health, suggesting power is a complex concept, and the way it is exercised is often opaque. Power that is not based on financial strength but on knowledge or experience, is difficult to estimate, and yet it may provide the legitimacy to make moral claims on what is, or ought to be, on global health agendas. Twenty years ago p...

Research has shown that several criteria underlie people's opinions about the welfare deservingness of benefit recipients. However, it remains unknown which factors are associated with the emphasis that people place on such criteria. Using a 2006 Dutch national survey on the welfare deservingness of disability pension recipients, we study the influence of structural and cultural factors on peop...