| 1. |
- Ahmed, Syed Masud, et al.
(författare)
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Targeted intervention for the ultra poor in rural Bangladesh: Does it make any difference in their health-seeking behaviour?
- 2006
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Ingår i: Social Science & Medicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 0277-9536. ; 63:11, s. 2899-2911
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- It is now well recognised that regular microcredit intervention is not enough to effectively reach the ultra poor in rural Bangladesh, in fact it actively excludes them for structural reasons. A grants-based integrated intervention was developed (with health inputs to mitigate the income-erosion effect of illness) to examine whether such a targeted intervention could change the health-seeking behaviour of the ultra-poor towards greater use of health services and "formal allopathic" providers during illness, besides improving their poverty status and capacity for health expenditure. The study was carried out in three northern districts of Bangladesh with high density of ultra poor households, using a pre-test/post-test control group design. A pre-intervention baseline (2189 interventions and 2134 controls) survey was undertaken in 2002 followed by an intervention (of 18 months duration) and a post-intervention follow-up survey of the same households in 2004. Structured interviews were conducted to elicit information on health-seeking behaviour of household members. Findings reveal an overall change in health-seeking behaviour in the study population, but the intervention reduced self-care by 7 percentage units and increased formal allopathic care by 9 percentage units. The intervention increased the proportion of non-deficit households by 43 percentage units, as well as the capacity to spend more than Tk. 25 for treatment of illness during the reference period by 11 percentage units. Higher health expenditure and time (pre- to -post-intervention period) was associated with increased use of health care from formal allopathic providers. However, gender differences in health-seeking and health-expenditure disfavouring women were also noted. The programmatic implications of these findings are discussed in the context of improving the ability of health systems to reach the ultra poor.
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| 2. |
- Andersson, Karolina, 1978, et al.
(författare)
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Do policy changes in the pharmaceutical reimbursement schedule affect drug expenditures? Interrupted time series analysis of cost, volume and cost per volume trends in Sweden 1986-2002.
- 2006
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Ingår i: Health policy (Amsterdam, Netherlands). - : Elsevier BV. - 0168-8510. ; 79:2-3, s. 231-43
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The last decades increasing pharmaceutical expenditures in Sweden and other western countries have created a need for reforms to reduce the trend. The aim was to analyse if reforms concerning the pharmaceutical reimbursement scheme in Sweden during the years 1986-2002 were associated with changes in cost, volume and cost per volume of pharmaceuticals. Effects of changes in the reimbursement schedule during the study period were evaluated for all registered pharmaceuticals in Sweden and for five indicator drug groups. Five policy changes during the study period were assessed. Three concerned increased patient co-payment (January 1, 1991; January 1, 1995 and June 1, 1999), one the introduction of reference based pricing and increased co-payment (January 1, 1993) and one a new structure of the reimbursement schedule (January 1, 1997). The National Corporation of Swedish Pharmacies provided pharmaceutical delivery data for all Swedish pharmacies. Possible breaks in the trend associated with the investigated reforms were analysed with linear segmented regression analysis. This showed that increased co-payments were not associated with changed level or slope of cost and volume. The new reimbursement schedule was associated with a decreased level of cost and volume, both for all drugs combined and for several of the indicator drug groups. It was also associated with an increased slope for both volume and cost in some indicator drug groups and for all drugs. Introduction of reference based pricing was associated with a reduced slope of cost/defined daily doses (DDD) in all of the indicator drug groups and for all drugs. The analysis showed that major changes in the reimbursement system such as the introduction of a new reimbursement schedule and reference based pricing were associated with reductions in cost and volume for the new reimbursement schedule and cost per volume for reference based pricing.
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| 3. |
- Andersson, Karolina, 1978, et al.
(författare)
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Impact of a generic substitution reform on patients' and society's expenditure for pharmaceuticals.
- 2007
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Ingår i: Health policy (Amsterdam, Netherlands). - : Elsevier BV. - 0168-8510. ; 81:2-3, s. 376-84
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sweden's pharmaceutical expenditure has increased during the last decades. On 1 October 2002 mandatory generic substitution was introduced in Sweden with the purpose to reduce the growth in pharmaceutical expenditure. The aim of the present study was to investigate if the implementation of generic substitution was associated with changes in patients' expenses and reimbursed cost for prescribed pharmaceuticals included in the Swedish Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). Monthly pharmacy sales data was obtained from the National Corporation of Swedish Pharmacies (Apoteket AB). The study period ranged between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2004. Changes in pharmaceutical expenditure associated with the introduction of generic substitution were analysed with a linear segmented regression. The study comprised outpatient prescription pharmaceuticals encompassed by PBS for Sweden in total and each county council. Two different data sets were analysed. The first comprised all prescribed pharmaceuticals. The second contained only pharmaceuticals on regular prescriptions (i.e. exclusion of multidose dispensed drugs). Changes in patient co-payment per 1000 inhabitants and working day and subsidised cost per 1000 inhabitants and working day associated with the introduction of generic substitution were analysed. Expenditure was expressed in Swedish krona, SEK (SEK 1=US$ 0.14/euro 0.11, 7 July 2006). The Swedish Consumer Price Index was used to inflation-adjust expenditures with 2004 as base. The introduction of generic substitution was associated with a significant change in slope for patient co-payment in both all prescribed pharmaceuticals and pharmaceuticals on regular prescriptions (p<0.005) for Sweden in total. The slope shifted direction from a slight increase before the reform into a decline after the reform was implemented. This was also found for the average slope of patient co-payment for all county councils (p<0.0001). The introduction of generic substitution was associated with a statistically significant shift in slope for subsidised cost for Sweden in total (p<0.001). The slope shifted from a monthly increase before October 2002 to a monthly decline for all prescribed pharmaceuticals afterwards. Similar results were found for the average slope of subsidised cost for all county councils both for all prescribed pharmaceuticals and pharmaceuticals on regular prescriptions (p<0.0001). The introduction of generic substitution was associated with a shift in trend from an increase into a decrease both for patients' and society's expenditures. This suggests that generic substitution has contributed to a reduction in the growth of pharmaceutical expenditure.
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| 4. |
- Andersson, Karolina, 1978, et al.
(författare)
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Influence of mandatory generic substitution on pharmaceutical sales patterns: a national study over five years
- 2008
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Ingår i: BMC Health Services Research. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1472-6963. ; 8:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND:Mandatory generic substitution was introduced in Sweden in October 2002 in order to try to curb escalating pharmaceutical expenditure. The aim of this study was to investigate how sales patterns for substitutable and non-substitutable pharmaceuticals have developed since the introduction of mandatory generic substitution; furthermore, to compare sales patterns in different groups of the population, based on patients' age and gender. METHODS:Five therapeutic groups comprising both substitutable and non-substitutable pharmaceuticals were included. The study period was from January 2000 to June 2005. National sales data were used, covering volumes of dispensed prescription medicines (expressed in defined daily doses per 1000 inhabitants and day) of each pharmacological substance in the therapeutic groups for each age and gender group. Sales patterns for substitutable and non-substitutable pharmaceuticals were compared using a descriptive approach. RESULTS:In most therapeutic groups there has been an increase in the volumes of substitutable pharmaceuticals sold since the introduction of the reform, ranging from one third to three times the initial volume; whereas the volumes of non-substitutable pharmaceuticals have levelled out or declined. There were few gender differences in sales patterns of substitutable and non-substitutable drugs. In three therapeutic groups, sales patterns differed across different age groups, and there was a tendency for volumes of recently introduced non-substitutable pharmaceuticals to be proportionally higher in the youngest age groups. CONCLUSION:Since the introduction of the reform, there has been a proportionally larger increase in sales of substitutable pharmaceuticals compared with sales of non-substitutable pharmaceuticals. This indicates that the reform might have contributed to larger sales of less expensive pharmaceuticals.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Asimus, Sara, 1976, et al.
(författare)
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Artemisinin antimalarials moderately affect cytochrome P450 enzyme activity in healthy subjects.
- 2007
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Ingår i: Fundamental & Clinical Pharmacology. - : Wiley. - 0767-3981 .- 1472-8206. ; 21:3, s. 307-316
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this study was to investigate which principal human cytochrome P450 (CYP450) enzymes are affected by artemisinin and to what degree the artemisinin derivatives differ with respect to their respective induction and inhibition capacity. Seventy-five healthy adults were randomized to receive therapeutic oral doses of artemisinin, dihydroartemisinin, arteether, artemether or artesunate for 5 days (days 1–5). A six-drug cocktail consisting of caffeine, coumarin, mephenytoin, metoprolol, chlorzoxazone and midazolam was administered orally on days −6, 1, 5 and 10 to assess the activities of CYP1A2, CYP2A6, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, CYP2E1 and CYP3A, respectively. Four-hour plasma concentrations of parent drugs and corresponding metabolites and 7-hydroxycoumarin urine concentrations were quantified by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The 1-hydroxymidazolam/midazolam 4-h plasma concentration ratio (CYP3A) was increased on day 5 by artemisinin [2.66-fold (98.75% CI: 2.10–3.36)], artemether [1.54 (1.14–2.09)] and dihydroartemisinin [1.25 (1.06–1.47)] compared with day −6. The S-4'-hydroxymephenytoin/S-mephenytoin ratio (CYP2C19) was increased on day 5 by artemisinin [1.69 (1.47–1.94)] and arteether [1.33 (1.15–1.55)] compared with day −6. The paraxanthine/caffeine ratio (CYP1A2) was decreased on day 1 after administration of artemisinin [0.27 (0.18–0.39)], arteether [0.70 (0.55–0.89)] and dihydroartemisinin [0.73 (0.59–0.90)] compared with day −6. The α-hydroxymetoprolol/metoprolol ratio (CYP2D6) was lower on day 1 compared with day −6 in the artemisinin [0.82 (0.70–0.96)] and dihydroartemisinin [0.83 (0.71–0.96)] groups, respectively. In the artemisinin-treated subjects this decrease was followed by a 1.34-fold (1.14–1.58) increase from day 1 to day 5. These results show that intake of artemisinin antimalarials affect the activities of several principal human drug metabolizing CYP450 enzymes. Even though not significant in all treatment groups, changes in the individual metrics were of the same direction for all the artemisinin drugs, suggesting a class effect that needs to be considered in the development of new artemisinin derivatives and combination treatments of malaria.
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| 8. |
- Bergman, Eva, et al.
(författare)
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Self-administered measurement of symphysis-fundus heights
- 2007
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Ingår i: Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica. - : Wiley. - 0001-6349 .- 1600-0412. ; 86:6, s. 671-677
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background. Antenatal identification of infants small for gestational age (SGA) improves their perinatal outcome. Repeated measurements of the symphysis-fundus (SF) heights performed by midwives is the most widespread screening method for detection of SGA. However the insufficiency of this method necessitates improved practices. Earlier start and more frequent SF measurements, which could be acomplished by self-administered measurements, might improve the ability to detect deviant growth. The present study was set up to evaluate wether pregnant wome can reliable perform SF measurements by themself. Method. Forty healthy women with singelton and ultrasound-dated pregancies from 2 antenatal clinics in Uppsala, Sweden, were asked to perform 4 consecutive SF measureemnts once a week, from 20 to 25 weeks of gestation until delivery. The self-administered SF measurements were recorded and systematically compared with midwives' SF measurements. Results. Thirty-three pregnant women performed self-administered SF measurements over a 14-week period (range 1-21). The SF curves constructed from self-admiinistered SF measurements had the same shape as previously constructed population-based reference curves. The variance for self-admiinistered SF measurements was higher than that of the midwives. Conclusions. Pregnant women are capable of measuring SF heights by themselves, but with a higher individual variance than midwives. Repeated measurements at each occasion can compensate for the higher variance. The main advantage of self-administered SF measurements is the opportunity to follow fetal growth earlier and more frequently.
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| 9. |
- Bergman, Eva, et al.
(författare)
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Symphysis-fundus measurements for detection of small for gestational age pregnancies
- 2006
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Ingår i: Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica. - : Wiley. - 0001-6349 .- 1600-0412. ; 85:4, s. 407-412
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background. In Sweden measurements of the symphysis-fundus (SF) distance are used to detect small for gestational age (SGA) pregnancies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of Swedish ultrasound-based SF reference curves in detecting SGA pregnancies. Methods. To assess the sensitivity for detection of SGA pregnancies we performed a case-control study. Through the Swedish Medical Birth Register we identified all singleton SGA infants born in Uppsala in 1993-1997 and randomly recruited non-SGA singleton infants as controls. We included 169 term and 73 preterm SGA cases and 296 controls, all born at term. The reference curves constructed by Steingrimsdottir (S curve) and Kieler (K curve) were evaluated. Gestational age at the first alarm in the preterm SGA group was recorded. Results. In term pregnancies the S curve showed a sensitivity of 32% and specificity of 90% at a cut-off of -2 SDs. The corresponding values for the K curve were 51% and 83%, respectively. In preterm SGA pregnancies the sensitivity of the S curve was 49% and of the K curve 58%. The first alarm below 2 SDs was noted before 32 weeks in 37% with the S curve and 43% with the K curve for preterm SGA pregnancies. Conclusions. Both tested Swedish SF reference curves had low sensitivities for term SGA pregnancies. Sensitivity was higher for the preterm group and SF measurements seem to be better for detecting the most severe cases of SGA.
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| 10. |
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