PURPOSE Chronic illness and low levels of health literacy affect health outcomes for many individuals, particularly older adults and racial/ethnic minorities. This study sought to understand the knowledge, strengths, and areas of need regarding self-management of chronic illness in order to lay the groundwork for content development of an intervention to increase health literacy and maximize pa...

OBJECTIVE This study explored associations among disease-management partnership functioning, synergy and effectiveness in the delivery of chronic-illness care. DESIGN This study had a cross-sectional design. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS The study sample consists of 218 professionals (out of 393) participating in 22 disease-management partnerships in various regions of the Netherlands. MAIN OU...

Self-care interventions are promoted as effective strategies for improving the quality of life and health outcomes for individuals with long-term health conditions. Outcome measures used in evaluations using Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) are not designed to consider patients' prior management strategies and experience of illness. Yet the experience of illness literature suggests that adju...

BACKGROUND Detection of depression can be difficult in primary care, particularly when associated with chronic illness. Patient beliefs may affect detection and subsequent engagement with management. We explored patient beliefs about the nature of depression associated with physical illness. METHODS A qualitative interview study of patients registered with general practices in Leeds, UK. We i...

Canada's publicly funded healthcare system ensures that medically necessary hospital and physician services are available without financial barriers, but not all community-based care is covered. Consequently, many patients experience financial shocks (FS) related to community-based healthcare services not funded by government, and perhaps also from lost income, a situation that may be difficult...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study is to analyze the scale of and trends associated with the cost-of-illness of thyroid disease in Korea at 2-year intervals during the last 10 years for which data are available. METHODS Cost-of-illness was estimated in terms of direct and indirect costs. Direct costs include direct medical costs due to hospitalization, outpatient and pharmacy sectors, trans...