This paper investigates the determinants of regional variations in outpatient antibiotic consumption using Swiss data. The analysis contributes to the debate on appropriate antibiotic use by improving the understanding of its determinants, and may help to define more effective health care policies to reduce the resistance phenomenon. Findings suggest that Switzerland exhibits relatively low lev...

BACKGROUND Administrative claims are a rich source of information for epidemiological and health services research; however, the ability to accurately capture specific diseases or complications using claims data has been debated. In this study, the authors examined the validity of International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) diagnosis codes for the ...

BACKGROUND The Korean healthcare system is composed of costly and inefficient structures that fail to adequately divide the functions and roles of medical care organizations. To resolve this matter, the government reformed the cost-sharing policy in November of 2011 for the management of outpatients visiting general or tertiary hospitals with comparatively mild diseases. The purpose of the pres...

background to estimate the total annual cost due to chronic hepatitis b (chb)-related diseases imposed on each patient and his/her family in iran.   methods economic burden of chb-related diseases (chb, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma) were examined. in this retrospective study, 100 iranian patients were identified to obtain their socioeconomic status, utilization (direct and indirect c...

background: the general pattern of epidemiologic transition from communicable to non-communicable diseases is also observed for gastrointestinal and liver diseases (gild), which constitute a heterogeneous array of causes of death and disability. we aimed to describe the trend of gild in iran based on the global burden of disease (gbd2010) study from 1990 to 2010. methods: the trend of number of...

Data about the prevalence of communicable and non-communicable diseases, as one of the most important categories of epidemiological data, is used for interpreting health status of communities. This study aims to calculate the prevalence of outpatient diseases through the characterization of outpatient prescriptions. The data used in this study is collected from 1412 prescriptions for various ty...

Parapneumonic empyema (PPE) is an important complication of pediatric pneumonia and leads to prolonged hospitalization and substantial short-term morbidity. Over the past decade, there has been vigorous debate into the optimal management of such patients leading to marked variation in care. Most of the debate has focused on the optimal drainage procedure, focusing on clinical trials that have a...

OBJECTIVE To assess the prevalence and distribution of rheumatic diseases in a community based rheumatological outpatient practice. METHODS Rheumatological diagnoses of 3751 consecutive new and returning patients were recorded using a standard diagnosis form. RESULTS 6264 rheumatological diagnoses were made in 3751 patients, of whom 1097 were newly referred; 69% of all patients were female....