BACKGROUND Medicine is a highly professionalized endeavour, by tradition centred on the authority of physicians. Better education and the advent of the information age cater for increased demands on society in general and on health care in particular to enable people to make informed decisions regarding themselves. Participation in medical decisions requires informed knowledge which is hard to ...

BACKGROUND Persons unaware of their human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection account for approximately 40% of ongoing transmissions in the United States. Persons are unaware of their infection because of delayed HIV diagnoses that represent substantial missed opportunities to improve health outcomes and prevent HIV transmission. METHODS Data from CDC's National HIV Surveillance System wer...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the absolute wealth of households using data from demographic and health surveys. METHODS We developed a new metric, the absolute wealth estimate, based on the rank of each surveyed household according to its material assets and the assumed shape of the distribution of wealth among surveyed households. Using data from 156 demographic and health surveys in 66 countries, w...

Biological monitoring of exposure to chemicals in the workplace is an important component of exposure assessment and prevention of adverse health effects. It should be employed in conjunction with ambient air monitoring to provide information on the absorbed dose of a chemical agent and the effect of all routes of exposure. Judgments regarding the acceptable level of a chemical or its metabolit...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to identify key factors affecting research capacity and engagement of allied health professionals working in a large metropolitan health service. Identifying such factors will assist in determining strategies for building research capacity in allied health. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 276 allied health professionals working within the Sydney Local Heal...

Reference values seem crucial to both veterinary medicine and human medicine. The main critique is that the theoretical connections between the concepts of reference values, normality, and health are weak. In this paper, we analyze especially one attempt in veterinary medicine to establish such a theoretical connection. We find that this attempt fails because it is circular. In conclusion, we w...

IMPORTANCE A metric of efficiency, a function of the ratio of quality to cost per patient, will allow the health care system to better measure the impact of specific reforms and compare the effectiveness of each. OBJECTIVE To develop and evaluate an efficiency index that estimates the performance of an ophthalmologist's practice as a function of cost, number of patients receiving care, and qu...

objective: psychiatric distress and work related stress may have a profound effect on an individual's well-being .the aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence rate of mental health problems and their distribution by age, educational level, marital status and years of employment in a chocolate manufacturing company in iran .the general health questionnaire (a widely used screening instru...

INTRODUCTION Clinical outcome is an important determinant of programme success. This study aims to evaluate patients' baseline characteristics as well as level of care associated with lost to follow-up (LTFU) and mortality of patients on antiretroviral treatment (ART). METHODS Retrospective cohort study using routine service data of adult patients initiated on ART in 2007 in 10 selected hospi...

BACKGROUND Home-based carers (HBCs) play a critical role in ensuring the success of the primary health care re-engineering strategy in South Africa. Their role includes ensuring improved access to and delivery of primary health care at the household level, and better co-ordination and improved linkages between community and health facilities for HIV/TB services. The objective of this study was ...