Equity of Health Care Financing: An Application to Iran

This paper analyzes inequality in Iran's health system from a financing perspective. Through grouped data of household budget published by Iran Statistic Center (ISC) and Beta Lorenz curve introduced in Kakwani (1980), it has been tried to extract Beta Lorenz curve and Kakwani progressivity index in each individual rural and urban district, and also to obtain other inequality measure in (1997-2007) Period.Then to study health inequality for the given period, we divided it into two sub-periods: (1997-2001) and (2002-2007) and finally to compare health inequality, using Bootstrap technique, we made a pseudo statistical population. Results show a degree of descending progressively in urban areas while in rural areas it has witnessed a slight improvement. However as the results show in both rural and urban areas, because of the negativity of Kakwani's index of the household expenditure which is financed by themselves is not progressive at all. Also the ratio of share richest quintile to poorest quintile for health care in urban and rural areas are 8.79 and 8.01 respectively.Equity, Health care financing, Kakwani progressivity index, Iran

Ecological Model of Adaptation with Diabetes type 2: Development and Study of Empiric Fitness

Introduction: The present study aimed at presenting and testing a model to describe the adaptation phenomenon among the patients engaged with type 2 diabetes (T2D).Methods: This is a correlational research design wherein a total of 350 individuals referring to four special medical centers for diabetes at Tehran (Iran). The research instruments included the Jackson’s five-factor questionnaire, demographic and social support subscales of diabetes care profile, cognitive appraisal of diabetes scale, problem areas in diabetes survey, Billings and Moos coping strategies scale, appraisal of adaptation to diabetes scale, and HbA1C level.Results: The outputs of the tests on the final model of the research showed that the behavior activating system, fight, flight and freeze system, global social support, and “Get” social support impose significant effects on the cognitive appraisal. Moreover, the “Get-Want” & Global Social support, Fight, Flight & freeze System and the cognitive appraisal affected the adaptive tasks significantly. The Fight, Flight & freeze System and the adaptive tasks imposed significant effects on the problem-focused emotional-physical coping. The Problem focused socio-cognitive coping and the emotional-physical coping affected the initial adaptation significantly. Behavior inhibition system, all the three components of social support, and Problem focused Socio-cognitive coping imposed significant effects on the secondary adaptation. And finally, Global social support and initial adaptation affected the HbA1C significantly. In addition, a number of intermediate effects were verified.Conclusion: Upon accessing the model of adaptation to disease for a particular individual, one can access his/her adaptation profile and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of his/her adaptation structure and formulate the required interventions accordingly.Declaration of Interest: Non

Modeling Business Cycle Fluctuations through Markov Switching VAR:An Application to Iran

IN this paper, the Iranian Business Cycle characteristics were investigated via uni-variate and multivariate Markov-switching specifications. By using Hamilton (1989) and Krolzig (1997) (MS-VAR) models, we examined the stochastic properties of the cyclical pattern of the quarterly Iranian real GDP between 1988:Q2 - 2008:Q3. The empirical analysis consists of mainly three parts. First, two kinds of alternative specifications were tried and we were adopted best specification with respect to various diagnostic statistics. Then, selected models were tested against their linear benchmarks. LR test results imply strong evidence in favor of the nonlinear regime switching behavior. Furthermore, the multivariate specification with various macro aggregates and changing variance parameter outperformed the other MS models with reference to one-step ahead forecasting performance. With this specification, we can detect the three recessionary periods experienced by the Iranian economy between 1988:Q2 and 2008:Q3. Finally, based on inference from this model a chronology of business cycle turning points was determined

Equity of Health Care Financing: An Application to Iran

This paper analyzes inequality in Iran's health system from a financing perspective. Through grouped data of household budget published by Iran Statistic Center (ISC) and Beta Lorenz curve introduced in Kakwani (1980), it has been tried to extract Beta Lorenz curve and Kakwani progressivity index in each individual rural and urban district, and also to obtain other inequality measure in (1997-2007) Period.Then to study health inequality for the given period, we divided it into two sub-periods: (1997-2001) and (2002-2007) and finally to compare health inequality, using Bootstrap technique, we made a pseudo statistical population. Results show a degree of descending progressively in urban areas while in rural areas it has witnessed a slight improvement. However as the results show in both rural and urban areas, because of the negativity of Kakwani's index of the household expenditure which is financed by themselves is not progressive at all. Also the ratio of share richest quintile to poorest quintile for health care in urban and rural areas are 8.79 and 8.01 respectively

A Textbook Evaluation of Speech Acts and Language Functions in High School English Textbooks (I, II AndIII) and Interchange Series, Books I, II, And III

Although English textbooks are considered as a key component in English language teaching programs, they have been criticized for not offering classroom learner’s adequate opportunity for learning authentic language (Vellenga, 2004). This is because, instead of making use of language samples that native speakers actually produce, many textbooks have drawn on native speakers’ intuition about language use, which might not always be reliable. This study investigated the use of speech acts presented in Iranian high School English Textbooks I, II, and III and New Interchange series (I, II, III) which are quite popular in Iranian language schools and institutions. For this purpose, speech acts in the conversations were analyzed to see how they were presented through Searle’s (1976) speech act model. There were 1100 different speech acts used in New Interchange series while there were only 275 speech acts used in high school textbooks. The language functions in the two mentioned series were also compared, there were a variety of language functions used in the New Interchange series while in the high school English textbooks they were presented unequally and some of them recurred throughout the books which followed no specific pattern. Since high school English textbooks in Iran are not communicatively oriented, the researcher concluded that these books cannot develop the pragmatic competence in the language learners or students. Finally, some recommendations were offered for the textbook designers and language teachers in dealing with the speech acts in high school English textbooks

Equity of Health Care Financing: An Application to Iran

This paper analyzes inequality in Iran's health system from a financing perspective. Through grouped data of household budget published by Iran Statistic Center (ISC) and Beta Lorenz curve introduced in Kakwani (1980), it has been tried to extract Beta Lorenz curve and Kakwani progressivity index in each individual rural and urban district, and also to obtain other inequality measure in (1997-2007) Period.Then to study health inequality for the given period, we divided it into two sub-periods: (1997-2001) and (2002-2007) and finally to compare health inequality, using Bootstrap technique, we made a pseudo statistical population. Results show a degree of descending progressively in urban areas while in rural areas it has witnessed a slight improvement. However as the results show in both rural and urban areas, because of the negativity of Kakwani's index of the household expenditure which is financed by themselves is not progressive at all. Also the ratio of share richest quintile to poorest quintile for health care in urban and rural areas are 8.79 and 8.01 respectively

Neglected simultaneous bilateral femoral neck fractures secondary to narcotic drug abuse treated by bilateral one-staged hemiarthroplasty: a case report

Simultaneous bilateral femoral neck fractures are extremely rare and associated with various conditions. Up to now Most cases had correlations with major trauma, repetitive minor trauma, seizure, parathyroid or renal dysfunction, anti-epileptic medications, seizure, etc. A 28-year-old addict man referred to us with a 10-year history of narcotic drug abuse and history of 8 months bilateral groin pain. He admitted with displaced bilateral femoral neck fracture. Because of long duration of this condition and osteonecrosis revealed on bone scan, one-staged bilateral hip hemiarthroplasty was done. A good function was noted after surgery to 4-month follow up. Up to now, have not be founded in the literature that a case of bilateral femoral neck fracture associated with narcotic drug abuse

A Textbook Evaluation of Speech Acts and Language Functions in High School English Textbooks (I, II AndIII) and Interchange Series, Books I, II, And III

Although English textbooks are considered as a key component in English language teaching programs, they have been criticized for not offering classroom learner’s adequate opportunity for learning authentic language (Vellenga, 2004). This is because, instead of making use of language samples that native speakers actually produce, many textbooks have drawn on native speakers’ intuition about language use, which might not always be reliable. This study investigated the use of speech acts presented in Iranian high School English Textbooks I, II, and III and New Interchange series (I, II, III) which are quite popular in Iranian language schools and institutions. For this purpose, speech acts in the conversations were analyzed to see how they were presented through Searle’s (1976) speech act model. There were 1100 different speech acts used in New Interchange series while there were only 275 speech acts used in high school textbooks. The language functions in the two mentioned series were also compared, there were a variety of language functions used in the New Interchange series while in the high school English textbooks they were presented unequally and some of them recurred throughout the books which followed no specific pattern. Since high school English textbooks in Iran are not communicatively oriented, the researcher concluded that these books cannot develop the pragmatic competence in the language learners or students. Finally, some recommendations were offered for the textbook designers and language teachers in dealing with the speech acts in high school English textbooks