OBJECTIVE To investigate equity of patient outcomes in a psychological therapy service, following increased access achieved by a quality improvement (QI) initiative. DESIGN Retrospective service evaluation of health outcomes; data analysed by ANOVA, chi-squared and Statistical Process Control. SETTING A psychological therapy service in Westminster, London, UK. PARTICIPANTS People living i...

CONTEXT Fragmentation of care, complexity of diseases and the need to involve patients actively in their individual health care led to the development of the personal health community (PHC). In a PHC, patients can -regardless of the nature of their condition- invite all professionals that are involved in their health care process. Once gathered, the patient and health care team can exchange inf...

Patients with chronic or complex medical or psychiatric conditions are treated by many practioners, including general practitioners (GPs). Formal liaison between primary and specialist is often assumed to offer benefits to patients. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of formal liaison of GPs with specialist service providers on patient health outcomes, by conducting a systematic r...

OBJECTIVE There is ongoing debate on whether health literacy represents a skill-based construct for health self-management, or if it also more broadly captures personal 'activation' or motivation to manage health. This research examines 1) the association between patient activation and health literacy as they are most commonly measured and 2) the independent and combined associations of patient...

BACKGROUND A number of articles addressing various aspects of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) were published in the Health and Quality of Life Outcomes (HQLO) journal in 2012 and 2013. This review provides a summary of studies describing recent methodological advances and innovations in HRQoL felt to be of relevance to clinicians and researchers. METHODS Scoping review of original rese...

OBJECTIVE The concept of 'resilience' is of increasing interest in studies of mental health in populations facing adversity. However, lack of longitudinal data on the dynamics of resilience and non-usage of resilience-specific measurements have prevented a better understanding of resilience-mental health interactions. Hence, the present study was conducted to investigate the stability of levels...

OBJECTIVE This study's objective was to develop a measure of social health using item response theory as part of the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS). METHODS After candidate items were generated from review of prior literature, focus groups, expert input, and cognitive interviews, items were administered to youth aged 8-17 as part of the PROMIS pediatric larg...

The practice of outcomes research is growing in all segments of the health care industry, yet few practitioners and researchers are prepared to deal with the completion of statistical analyses that characterize the new focus on results. This article discusses basic model formulation and interpretation. It also encourages the use of statistical models that study the simultaneous effects of many ...

Background. The predictive value of frailty assessment is still debated. We analyzed the predictive value of frailty of independent living elderly. The outcomes variables were visits to the general practitioner, hospital admission, and occurrence of new health problems. Methods. A one-year follow-up study was executed among 215 community-living old Romanians. General practitioners reported the ...

Concentrating the supply of hospital activity in larger hospital units is often presented as a means to improve the quality of care, but the extent of the relationship and the direction of causality between hospital volume and health outcomes is still a matter for debate. The literature review carried out by the IRDES shows that for certain procedures and interventions, particularly complex sur...