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- Batura, Neha, et al.
(författare)
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Collecting and analysing cost data for complex public health trials : reflections on practice
- 2014
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Ingår i: Global Health Action. - : CoAction Publishing. - 1654-9716 .- 1654-9880. ; 7, s. 23257-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Current guidelines for the conduct of cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) are mainly applicable to facility-based interventions in high-income settings. Differences in the unit of analysis and the high cost of data collection can make these guidelines challenging to follow within public health trials in low- and middle- income settings.OBJECTIVE: This paper reflects on the challenges experienced within our own work and proposes solutions that may be useful to others attempting to collect, analyse, and compare cost data between public health research sites in low- and middle- income countries.DESIGN: We describe the generally accepted methods (norms) for collecting and analysing cost data in a single-site trial from the provider perspective. We then describe our own experience applying these methods within eight comparable cluster randomised, controlled, trials. We describe the strategies used to maximise adherence to the norm, highlight ways in which we deviated from the norm, and reflect on the learning and limitations that resulted.RESULTS: When the expenses incurred by a number of small research sites are used to estimate the cost-effectiveness of delivering an intervention on a national scale, then deciding which expenses constitute 'start-up' costs will be a nontrivial decision that may differ among sites. Similarly, the decision to include or exclude research or monitoring and evaluation costs can have a significant impact on the findings. We separated out research costs and argued that monitoring and evaluation costs should be reported as part of the total trial cost. The human resource constraints that we experienced are also likely to be common to other trials. As we did not have an economist in each site, we collaborated with key personnel at each site who were trained to use a standardised cost collection tool. This approach both accommodated our resource constraints and served as a knowledge sharing and capacity building process within the research teams.CONCLUSIONS: Given the practical reality of conducting randomised, controlled trials of public health interventions in low- and middle- income countries, it is not always possible to adhere to prescribed guidelines for the analysis of cost effectiveness. Compromises are frequently required as researchers seek a pragmatic balance between rigor and feasibility. There is no single solution to this tension but researchers are encouraged to be mindful of the limitations that accompany compromise, whilst being reassured that meaningful analyses can still be conducted with the resulting data.
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| 2. |
- Chiatti, Carlos, et al.
(författare)
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Migrant care work for elderly households in Italy
- 2013
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Ingår i: Ageing in the Mediterranean. - Bristol : Policy Press. - 9781447301066 ; , s. 235-256
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper aims at pointing out the need for a more equitable, internationally driven approach to solve elder care staff shortages, on the background of the implications deriving from the widespread phenomenon of employing migrant care workers in the Italian elder care sector. The paper describes at first how this form of care provision has become so popular in this country to face the long term care needs characterising its ageing population. Main reasons are identified, on the one hand, in the decreasing availability of informal care, due to the increasing female participation in the labor market, a longer working life and a reduction in the support provided by social networks. On the “formal” side, a major role has been played also by the lack of appropriate long term care services, such as residential and public home care, as well as by a chronic shortage of nursing staff and a shorter length of hospital stays. The traditionally “cash-oriented” profile of the Italian welfare system – more based on cash-for-care measures rather than in-kind services – has ended up with perpetuating familistic tendencies stimulating the employment of foreign migrant care workers, often on a live-in, undeclared basis. The paper’s conclusions focus on the analysis of the main opportunities and challenges raised by this phenomenon, trying to catch all involved parties’ perspectives: the older care recipients’ families; the migrant care workers; the receiving and the sending societies. This approach allows to identify core advantages of this solution in the possibility to increase ageing in place opportunities (thus reducing institutionalisation rates) and to provide a more personalised home care at reasonable costs. On the other hand, drawbacks can occur in terms of low quality of care, risk of widespread undeclared labour conditions, possible exploitation of foreign migrants and abuse of older people, as well as “brain and care drain” effects in sending countries. A more neutral, internationally driven governance is therefore suggested in order to minimize these risks and promote equitable solutions to solve care provision shortages in some countries without “plundering the future” of other nations.
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| 3. |
- Genet, Nadine, et al.
(författare)
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Home care in Europe : a systematic literature review
- 2011
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Ingår i: BMC Health Services Research. - : BMC. - 1472-6963. ; 11:207
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Health and social services provided at home are becoming increasingly important. Hence, there is a need for information on home care in Europe. The objective of this literature review was to respond to this need, by systematically describing what has been reported on home care in Europe in the scientific literature over the past decade. Methods: A systematic literature search was performed for papers on home care published in English, using the following data bases: Cinahl, the Cochrane Library, Embase, Medline, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts, Social Services Abstracts, and Social Care Online. Studies were only included if they complied with the definition of home care, were published between January 1998 and October 2009, and dealt with at least one of the 31 specified countries. Clinical interventions, instrument developments, local projects and reviews were excluded. The data extracted included: the characteristics of the study and aspects of home care ‘policy & regulation’, 'financing', ‘organisation & service delivery’, and ‘clients & informal carers’. Results: Seventy-four out of 5,133 potentially relevant studies met the inclusion criteria, providing information on 18 countries. Many focused on the characteristics of home care recipients and on the organisation of home care. Geographical inequalities, market forces, quality and integration of services were also among the issues frequently discussed. Conclusions: It can be concluded that home care systems appeared to differ not just between but also within countries. The papers included, however, provided only a limited picture of home care. Many studies only focused on one aspect of the home care system and international comparative studies were rare. Furthermore, little information emerged on home care financing and on home care in general in Eastern Europe. This review clearly shows the need for more scientific publications on home care, especially papers comparing countries. A comprehensive and more complete insight into the state of home care in Europe requires gathering of information using a uniform framework and methodology.
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| 4. |
- Genet, Nadine, et al.
(författare)
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Management of the care process
- 2012. - 1
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Ingår i: Home care across Europe. - : European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. - 9789289002882 ; , s. 71-104, s. 71-104
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- For every person over the age of 65 in today’s European Union, there are four people of working age but, by 2050, there will only be two. Demand for long-term care, of which home care forms a significant part, will inevitably increase in the decades to come. Despite the importance of the issue, however, up-to-date and comparative information on home care in Europe is lacking. This book attempts to fill some of that gap by examining current European policy on home care services and strategies. Home care across Europe probes a wide range of topics including the links between social services and health-care systems, the prevailing funding mechanisms, how service providers are paid, the impact of governmental regulation, and the complex roles played by informal caregivers. Drawing on a set of Europe-wide case studies (available in a second, online volume), the study provides comparable descriptive information on many aspects of the organization, financing and provision of home care across the continent. It is a text that will help frame the coming debate about how best to serve elderly citizens as European populations age.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Greco, Ornella, 1987-
(författare)
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Bounds on Hilbert Functions and Betti Numbers of Veronese Modules
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis is a collection of four papers dealing with Hilbert functions and Betti numbers.In the first paper, we study the h-vectors of reduced zero-dimensional schemes in . In particular we deal with the problem of findingthe possible h-vectors for the union of two sets of points of given h-vectors. To answer to this problem, we give two kinds of bounds on theh-vectors and we provide an algorithm that calculates many possibleh-vectors.In the second paper, we prove a generalization of Green’s Hyper-plane Restriction Theorem to the case of finitely generated modulesover the polynomial ring, providing an upper bound for the Hilbertfunction of the general linear restriction of a module M in a degree dby the corresponding Hilbert function of a lexicographic module.In the third paper, we study the minimal free resolution of theVeronese modules, , where by giving a formula for the Betti numbers in terms of the reduced homology of the squarefree divisor complex. We prove that is Cohen-Macaulay if and only if k < d, and that its minimal resolutionis linear when k > d(n − 1) − n. We prove combinatorially that the resolution of is pure. We provide a formula for the Hilbert seriesof the Veronese modules. As an application, we calculate the completeBetti diagrams of the Veronese rings .In the fourth paper, we apply the same combinatorial techniques inthe study of the properties of pinched Veronese rings, in particular weshow when this ring is Cohen-Macaulay. We also study the canonicalmodule of the Veronese modules.
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| 9. |
- Lewycka, Sonia, et al.
(författare)
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Effect of women's groups and volunteer peer counselling on rates of mortality, morbidity, and health behaviours in mothers and children in rural Malawi (MaiMwana) : a factorial, cluster-randomised controlled trial
- 2013
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Ingår i: The Lancet. - : Elsevier. - 0140-6736 .- 1474-547X. ; 381:9879, s. 1721-35
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Women's groups and health education by peer counsellors can improve the health of mothers and children. We assessed their effects on mortality and breastfeeding rates in rural Malawi.METHODS: We did a 2×2 factorial, cluster-randomised trial in 185,888 people in Mchinji district. 48 equal-sized clusters were randomly allocated to four groups with a computer-generated number sequence. 24 facilitators guided groups through a community action cycle to tackle maternal and child health problems. 72 trained volunteer peer counsellors made home visits at five timepoints during pregnancy and after birth to support breastfeeding and infant care. Primary outcomes for the women's group intervention were maternal, perinatal, neonatal, and infant mortality rates (MMR, PMR, NMR, and IMR, respectively); and for the peer counselling were IMR and exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) rates. Analysis was by intention to treat. The trial is registered as ISRCTN06477126.FINDINGS: We monitored outcomes of 26,262 births between 2005 and 2009. In a factorial model adjusted only for clustering and the volunteer peer counselling intervention, in women's group areas, for years 2 and 3, we noted non-significant decreases in NMR (odds ratio 0.93, 0.64-1.35) and MMR (0.54, 0.28-1.04). After adjustment for parity, socioeconomic quintile, and baseline measures, effects were larger for NMR (0.85, 0.59-1.22) and MMR (0.48, 0.26-0.91). Because of the interaction between the two interventions, a stratified analysis was done. For women's groups, in adjusted analyses, MMR fell by 74% (0.26, 0.10-0.70), and NMR by 41% (0.59, 0.40-0.86) in areas with no peer counsellors, but there was no effect in areas with counsellors (1.09, 0.40-2.98, and 1.38, 0.75-2.54). Factorial analysis for the peer counselling intervention for years 1-3 showed a fall in IMR of 18% (0.82, 0.67-1.00) and an improvement in EBF rates (2.42, 1.48-3.96). The results of the stratified, adjusted analysis showed a 36% reduction in IMR (0.64, 0.48-0.85) but no effect on EBF (1.18, 0.63-2.25) in areas without women's groups, and in areas with women's groups there was no effect on IMR (1.05, 0.82-1.36) and an increase in EBF (5.02, 2.67-9.44). The cost of women's groups was US$114 per year of life lost (YLL) averted and that of peer counsellors was $33 per YLL averted, using stratified data from single intervention comparisons.INTERPRETATION: Community mobilisation through women's groups and volunteer peer counsellor health education are methods to improve maternal and child health outcomes in poor rural populations in Africa.
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| 10. |
- Moayyeri, Alireza, et al.
(författare)
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Genetic determinants of heel bone properties : genome-wide association meta-analysis and replication in the GEFOS/GENOMOS consortium
- 2014
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Ingår i: Human Molecular Genetics. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0964-6906 .- 1460-2083. ; 23:11, s. 3054-3068
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Quantitative ultrasound of the heel captures heel bone properties that independently predict fracture risk and, with bone mineral density (BMD) assessed by X-ray (DXA), may be convenient alternatives for evaluating osteoporosis and fracture risk. We performed a meta-analysis of genome-wide association (GWA) studies to assess the genetic determinants of heel broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA; n = 14 260), velocity of sound (VOS; n = 15 514) and BMD (n = 4566) in 13 discovery cohorts. Independent replication involved seven cohorts with GWA data (in silico n = 11 452) and new genotyping in 15 cohorts (de novo n = 24 902). In combined random effects, meta-analysis of the discovery and replication cohorts, nine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) had genome-wide significant (P < 5 x 10(-8)) associations with heel bone properties. Alongside SNPs within or near previously identified osteoporosis susceptibility genes including ESR1 (6q25.1: rs4869739, rs3020331, rs2982552), SPTBN1 (2p16.2: rs11898505), RSPO3 (6q22.33: rs7741021), WNT16 (7q31.31: rs2908007), DKK1 (10q21.1: rs7902708) and GPATCH1 (19q13.11: rs10416265), we identified a new locus on chromosome 11q14.2 (rs597319 close to TMEM135, a gene recently linked to osteoblastogenesis and longevity) significantly associated with both BUA and VOS (P < 8.23 x 10(-14)). In meta-analyses involving 25 cohorts with up to 14 985 fracture cases, six of 10 SNPs associated with heel bone properties at P < 5 x 10(-6) also had the expected direction of association with any fracture (P < 0.05), including three SNPs with P < 0.005: 6q22.33 (rs7741021), 7q31.31 (rs2908007) and 10q21.1 (rs7902708). In conclusion, this GWA study reveals the effect of several genes common to central DXA-derived BMD and heel ultrasound/DXA measures and points to a new genetic locus with potential implications for better understanding of osteoporosis pathophysiology.
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