Background We assessed direct and indirect costs associated with COPD in Sweden and examined how these costs vary across time, age, and disease stage in a cohort of patients with COPD and matched controls in a real-world, primary care (PC) setting. Patients and methods Data from electronic medical records linked to the mandatory national health registers were collected for COPD patients and a...

BACKGROUND This study aimed at identifying components of the household health costs. METHODS This study was a qualitative research conducted in two main phases. The first phase consisted of interviews with sample households selected in eight provinces of Iran. They were to identify components of the household health costs. In the second phase, components were determined as direct, indirect an...

In this paper the problem of minimum cost communication network design is considered where the costs are piecewise linear concave. Several methods are compared: Simulated Annealing method, a heuristic based on the method proposed by Minoux, and a lagrangian method based on lower bounding procedure.

BACKGROUND Outpatient treatment of uncomplicated acute diverticulitis is safe and effective. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of outpatient treatment on the reduction of healthcare costs. PATIENTS AND METHODS A retrospective cohort study comparing 2 groups was performed. In the outpatient treatment group, patients diagnosed with uncomplicated acute diverticulitis were treated...

OBJECTIVES To calculate total costs during the first year after diagnosis in 463 patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) included during 2006-09 (T2) and compare the results with a similar cohort included in 1996-98 (T1). METHOD Clinical and laboratory data were collected regularly in both cohorts, and patients completed biannual questionnaires reporting health care utilization and numb...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the health-related economic costs attributable to smoking in China for persons aged 35 and older in 2003 and in 2008 and to compare these costs with the respective results from 2000. METHODS A prevalence-based, disease-specific approach was used to estimate smoking-attributable direct and indirect economic costs. The primary data source was the 2003 and 2008 China Nation...

introduction: medicine is an inseparable link of health chain; a flaw in health process for high expenditures of the medicine or inappropriate access shall certainly bring higher costs in the mentioned procedure. the present study aimed to evaluate the impact of the households’ income, geographical access, patients’ direct payment, physician's visit and insured' inpatient rate on the amount of ...