OBJECTIVES To assess disparities in health and healthcare between asylum seekers (AS) and residents in Germany as a proof of concept using European Core Health Indicators (ECHI). DESIGN Population-based cross-sectional feasibility study. PARTICIPANTS All AS (aged 18 years or above) registered in three counties in Germany during a 3-month study period (N=1017). Cross-sectional data on the re...

A survey was carried out of one year's workload and morbidity recording by three partners in a semi-rural teaching practice. Despite an equal workload of patient contacts there were shown to be statistically significant differences between the partners in the number of return consultations, the sex and age of the patients seen, and in nine diagnostic groups. The statistically significant differ...

AIMS To measure the change in quality of care provided to sick children as a result of the routine implementation of the IMCI intervention. METHODS Structured observations of consultations with sick children, exit interviews with caregivers, and facility reviews were conducted both before and after IMCI intervention in four health districts in Cape Town. Interventions were case management tra...

objective: to determine the effectiveness of counseling in reducing anxiety of nulliparous pregnant women. materials and methods: in this quasi-experimental study, 110 nulliparous pregnant women were selected out of all pregnant women referring to fatemieh hospital in hamadan, iran. then, the subjects were divided into two groups in experimental and control (55 women in each). the data were col...

frozen section and touch imprint cytology are important diagnostic procedures for surgeons during operation and must be accurate if the patient is to receive maximum benefit. to assess the accuracy of intraoperative pathologic consultation including frozen section and touch imprint cytology during a five year period (1995- 2000), a retrospective survey of 1000 consecutive cases of frozen sectio...

BACKGROUND Shared decision making (SDM) involves patients and doctors contributing as partners to treatment decisions. It is not known whether or to what extent SDM contributes to the welfare arising from a consultation, and how important this contribution is relative to other attributes of a consultation. AIM To identify patient preferences for SDM relative to other utility bearing attribute...

STUDY OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between sociogeographic factors and health, using a particular social indicator of neighbourhood deprivation. DESIGN The study analysed the relationship between health problems (reported by randomly selected respondents to a household survey) and an area social indicator for the neighbourhoods where the respondents lived (ba...

BACKGROUND Many surgical procedures are delayed or cancelled due to inadequate preoperative assessment and preparation. Case cancellations can be decreased by improved preoperative patient evaluation, improved communication between physician and patient, and modified schedule design. Because of importance of the high cost associated with operating room cancellations; healthcare providers have e...

OBJECTIVE A lack of agreement between health-care providers and patient priorities can impact the health-care provider-patient relationship, treatment concordance and potentially health outcomes. Evidence suggests that people living with multiple morbidities do prioritise among their long-term conditions. However, the evidence revealing the underlying reasons behind this prioritisation remains ...