Introduction Informal patient payments for healthcare are common in the Western Balkans, negatively affecting public health and healthcare.   Aim To identify literature from the Western Balkans on what is known about informal patient payments and bought and brought goods, to examine their effects on healthcare and to determine what actions can be taken to tackle these payments.   Methods After ...

background: informal payments in the health sector of many developing countries are considered as a major impediment to health care reforms. informal payments are a form of systemic fraud and have adverse effects on the performance of the health system. in this study, the frequency and extent of informal payments as well as the determinants of these payments were investigated in general hospita...

Previous research on the care-giver burden experienced by adult children has typically focused on the adult child and parent dyad. This study uses information on multiple informal care-givers and examines how characteristics of the informal care-giving network affect the adult child's care-giver burden. In 2007, 602 Dutch care-givers who were assisting their older parents reported on parental a...

In the last 50 years the shape of cities has changed dramatically. People have started to migrate from rural areas, attracted by the opportunities created by a more dynamic economy and by the apparent easier life within the cities. This trend has been observed in Europe during the whole 20th century, but has now considerably slowed down, to the benefit of smaller urban centres, which have grown...

There are increasing concerns about the future availability of informal care for older people, particularly care by their children. This article explores past trends in the provision of informal care by children/children-in-law to their older parents/parents-in-law between 1985 and 1995 in Great Britain, using successive General Household Survey data. The article suggests that, during this peri...

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND The early post-discharge period is a vulnerable time for older patients with complex care requirements. This paper identifies factors predicting a self-reported successful post-discharge outcome for patients aged 80 years and over by exploring factors related to the discharge process, the provision of formal home-care services, informal care and characteristics of th...

This paper explores the use of social awareness support as a potential solution to alleviate informal care al, and emotional load habitually associated with their duties. This is a preliminary contribution of the Vienna University of Technology to TOPIC project that is currently under development. In this paper we report on relevant literature, identify and consider technological and interactio...

Families provide a considerable amount of informal care and support for older adults living with dementia. And when an older adult with dementia is hospitalized, family caregivers should be seen as important sources of information and included as valuable members of the health care team. This article describes a best-practice approach to working with families and includes recommendations for us...