Many countries are considering adopting political quotas for under-represented and disadvantaged minorities, but critics of the policy claim that it undermines political competition. Using evidence from India, I examine the impact of mandated political representation for disadvantaged minorities. Aggregate turnout falls by 9% of the baseline, but I find no negative impact on electoral competiti...

BACKGROUND Patient involvement has only recently received attention as a potentially useful approach to patient safety in primary care. OBJECTIVE To summarize work conducted on a scoping review of interventions focussing on patient involvement for patient safety; to develop consensus-based recommendations in this area. METHODS Scoping review of the literature 2006-2011 about methods and eff...

AIM AND OBJECTIVES to understand the purpose, impact and experience of nurse handover from patient and staff perspectives. BACKGROUND poor communication is increasingly recognised as a major factor in healthcare errors. Handover is a key risk point. Little consensus exists regarding the practice in nursing but the trend is towards bedside handover. Research on patient and staff experiences of...

OBJECTIVES To assess the current public participation in-local health policy and its implications through the analysis of policy networks in health center programs. METHODS We examined the decision-making process in sub-health center installations and the implementation process in metabolic syndrome management program cases in two districts ('gu's) of Seoul. Participants of the policy network...

INTRODUCTION Despite increased visibility of clinical trials through international trial registries, patients often remain uninformed of their existence, especially if they do not have access to adequate information about clinical research, including the language of the information. The aim of this study was to describe the context for transparency of clinical trials in Croatia in relation to c...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy of the Patient Reporting and Action for a Safe Environment intervention. DESIGN A multicentre cluster randomised controlled trial. SETTING Clusters were 33 hospital wards within five hospitals in the UK. PARTICIPANTS All patients able to give informed consent were eligible to take part. Wards were allocated to the intervention or control condition. INT...

With the rapid development of the waste incineration industry in China, top priority has been given to the problem of pollution caused by waste incineration. This study is the first attempt to assess all the waste incineration plants in Wuhan, the only national key city in central China, in terms of environmental impact, site selection, public health and public participation. By using a multi-c...

OBJECTIVE Question Prompt Lists (QPLs) have been used extensively in the oncology setting to improve communication, psychological and/or cognitive outcomes. In this systematic review, the objectives were to (a) examine the methodological quality of QPL interventions, (b) review the effectiveness of QPL interventions on communication, psychological and/or cognitive outcomes of cancer patients, (...

OBJECTIVE To review the literature on the involvement of patients in efforts to promote their own or others' safety while using health care services. METHOD A total of 1933 reports were identified as potentially relevant and 745 of these were included in the review (437 descriptions of interventions, 299 comment or opinion pieces and 42 discussions or studies of patients' willingness and abil...