Social comparison pervades our interactions with others, informing us of our standing and motivating improvement, but producing negative emotional and behavioral consequences that can harm relationships and lead to poor health outcomes. Social neuroscience research has begun to illuminate some mechanisms by which status divides lead to interpersonal consequences. This review integrates core fin...

In Canada, the delivery of dental care is left largely to private markets; public funding is limited to targeted groups of the population and substantial variation between provinces exists. In this article, the levels and sources of expenditures on dental care, the levels and distribution of service use associated with these expenditures and the oral health outcomes "produced" in Canada are con...

OBJECTIVE To provide an evidence-based review of plausible causal pathways that could best explain well-established associations between limited health literacy and health outcomes. METHODS Through analysis of current findings in medical and public health literature on health literacy we derived a conceptual causal model. RESULTS Health literacy should be viewed as both a patient and a syst...

We analyze the influence of technological progress on pharmaceuticals on rising health expenditures using US State level panel data. Improvements in medical technology are believed to be partly responsible for rapidly rising health expenditures. Even if the technological progress in medicine improves health outcomes and life quality, it can also increase the expenditure on health care. Our find...

Many statistical methods have been developed that treat within-subject correlation that accompanies the clustering of subjects in longitudinal data settings as a nuisance parameter, with the focus of analytic interest being on mean outcome or profiles over time. However, there is evidence that in certain settings, underlying variability in subject measures may also be important in predicting fu...

BACKGROUND The effectiveness of eHealth interventions in terms of reach and outcomes is now well documented. However, there is a need to understand not only whether eHealth interventions work, but also what kind of functions and mechanisms enhance their effectiveness. The present investigation contributes to tackling these challenges by investigating the role played by functional interactivity ...

Self-reported health is considered a health outcome related to neighborhood characteristics. This study analyzes the influence of urban multi-criteria deprivation and spatial accessibility to healthcare on individual self-reported health from a case study carried out in the city of Quito, Ecuador. A multi-criteria deprivation index and two alternative scenarios of this index were generated. A g...

Patients' expectations in the context of medical treatment represent a growing area of research, with accumulating evidence suggesting their influence on health outcomes across a variety of medical conditions. However, the aggregation of evidence is complicated due to an inconsistent and disintegrated application of expectation constructs and the heterogeneity of assessment strategies. Therefor...

Once again, I would like to salute the initiative to hold this Forum in our country, giving us the opportunity to deepen our quest for better health for the world’s peoples, and to reaffi rm that working together, a better world is possible. For our part, we have opened our arms, minds and hearts to join you in pursuit of these objectives, enhanced by the diverse points of view and thoughtful o...