BACKGROUND The inverse care law proposing that medical services are distributed inversely to population health needs, and that this law operates more completely where medical care is most exposed to market forces, was first suggested by Tudor Hart in 1971. This paper considers whether an inverse care law can be observed for the provision of informal care as well as for medical care. AIM Using...

The paper discusses the shift to narrative studies and the growth of biographical research in the social sciences as a way of knowing persons. Dangers inherent in false assumptions of knowledge of interviewing and semi-structured probes are noted. The author's experience with the Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method is discussed, using examples from his research on identity and the informal...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Approximately 9000 people in the UK are affected by Huntington's disease (HD). People with HD require ongoing health and social care support. There is a knowledge gap about costs of health and social care use associated with HD in the UK. This paper estimates the economic cost in the UK. METHODS Data on UK patients for the year 2013 were extracted from the European Hunt...

Transportation is a necessity if the day-to-day economic activities of the society must move on. There are different modes of informal transport available in Nigeria. This study evaluated the determinants of the modal choice of informal transport among commuters in North central city of Ilorin, Nigeria. The study used primary data generated through a structured questionnaire administered to 100...

Using data from the 2004 wave of the National Long-Term Care Survey, we examined how negative and positive caregiving experiences differ by caregivers' gender and relationship to care recipients. We further considered how their caregiving experiences are affected by caregivers' demographic characteristics, care recipients' problem behavior and dependency, caregivers' involvement, reciprocal hel...

BACKGROUND In healthcare, the focus is currently shifting from someone's disabilities to someone's abilities, which is also evident from the increasing focus on vitality. Vitality (here defined as energy, motivation and resilience) is an often used concept, which also aims at someone's capabilities. However, little is known about vitality yet; in particular about its association with participat...

Inclusive, unconstrained and honest communication is widely advocated as beneficial and ethical. We critically explore this assumption by reflecting upon our research in acute care, informal care and public health. Using Habermas' ideals of dialogue to conceptualise ideal speech, we concur with observations that health care is often characterised by intractable exclusions and constraints. Rathe...

The financial, opportunity and social costs and benefits of providing informal support to frail older people are described within an economic framework. Mentally and}or physically frail older people were identified through screening interviews with random community samples of people aged  and over in four UK areas :  frail older people living in private households nominated key informal su...