The Effect of Situational Factors on Impulse Buying and Compulsive Buying: Clothing

The aim of this study is to identify the effect of situational factors on impulse buying and compulsive buying. For achieving the goal, through a review of past studies, factors that were involved in this issue, were identified. Time pressure, available money, variety of selection, store environment, word of mouth, social norm, impulse buying and compulsive buying are variables that designed our model. The present study is a quantitative research with descriptive approach, where required data were gathered through questionnaires. Iranian purchasers who purchase clothing were selected as the research population. Data was analysed using LISREL Software. The results of the research show that available money and word of mouth have significant effect on impulse buying and impulse buying has significant effect on compulsive buying. Also it was found that variables of time pressure, variety of selection, store environment, and social norm have no significant effect on impulse buying

Comparison of Blood Transfusion Plus Chelation Therapy and Bone Marrow Transplantation in Patients with β-Thalassemia : Application of SF-36, EQ-5D, and Visual Analogue Scale Measures

Date of Acceptance: 08/06/2015 © 2015 by Kerman University of Medical Sciences. Acknowledgments The present article was extracted from the thesis written by Hassan Karami and was financially supported by Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran (grant No. 6292). The authors would like to thank all participants in the study IJHPM supports the Open Access initiative. Abstracts and full texts (PDF format) of all articles published by IJHPM are freely accessible to everyone immediately upon publication. IJHPM also does not charge any submission or publication fees.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Estimation and prediction of avoidable health care costs of cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes through adequate dairy food consumption: a systematic review and micro simulation modeling study

Background: Recent evidence from prospective cohort studies show a relationship between consumption of dairy foods and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This association highlights the importance of dairy foods consumption in prevention of these diseases and also reduction of associated healthcare costs. The aim of this study was to estimate avoidable healthcare costs of CVD and T2D through adequate dairy foods consumption in Iran. Methods: This was a multistage modelling study. We conducted a systematic literature review in PubMed and EMBASE to identify any association between incidence of CVD and T2DM and dairy foods intake, and also associated relative risks. We obtained age- and sex-specific dairy foods consumption level and healthcare expenditures from national surveys and studies. Patient level simulation Markov models were constructed to predict the disease incidence, patient population size and associated healthcare costs for current and optimal dairy foods consumption at different time horizons (1, 5, 10 and 20 years). All parameters including costs and transition probabilities were defined as statistical distributions in the models, and all analyses were conducted by accounting for first and second order uncertainty. Results: The systematic review results indicated that dairy foods consumption was inversely associated with incidence of T2DM, coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke. We estimated that the introduction of a diet containing 3 servings of dairy foods per day may produce a $0.43 saving in annual per capita healthcare costs in Iran in the first year due to saving in cost of CVD and T2DM treatment. The estimated savings in per capita healthcare costs were$8.42, $39.97 and$190.25 in 5, 10 and 20-years’ time, respectively. Corresponding total aggregated avoidable costs for the entire Iranian population within the study time horizons were $33.83,$661.31, $3,138.21 and$14,934.63 million, respectively. Conclusion: Our analysis demonstrated that increasing dairy foods consumption to recommended levels would be associated with reductions in healthcare costs. Further randomized trial studies are required to investigate the effect of dairy foods intake on cost of CVD and T2DM in the population

Measuring Technical Efficiency of Schools in Tehran University of Medical Sciences Using Data Envelopment Analysis

Background: Organizational efficiency should be continuously measured to plan for improvement, informing about organizational performance, and guiding the university toward its goals. In this study, the authors measured the efficiency of schools affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences as one of the most important universities in Iran, in 2011 and 2012. Methods: In this research, the efficiency of schools was measured using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique in three dimensions of education, research, and development. Several indices in each dimension were assumed as input. Data were collected from university documents and analyzed by output oriented approach using Win Deap software. Results: Findings revealed that the efficiency scores of four schools including public health, pharmacy, nursing and midwifery, and advanced technologies were 100 in both years. In 2011, the efficiency scores for other schools were as follows: medicine 73.1, dentistry 57.6, rehabilitation 82.33, paramedical sciences 80.26, and management and medical information 60.26. These scores were respectively 73.76, 85.26, 71.63, 94.16, and 94.86 in 2012. Conclusion: This research could successfully measure the efficiency of schools. Moreover, it can help decision makers to improve the performance of schools by determining the optimized output. &nbsp

Time Series Analysis of Determinants of Health Care Expenditure in Iran: A Bound Test Cointegration Approach

Background: specifying the determinants of healthcare expenditure is one of the most important challenges in the health sector. The current study was aimed to assess factors affecting government health care expenditure in Iran. Methods: to identify short-term and long-term determinants of healthcare expenditure in Iran during 1971-2007, Auto Regressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) bound testing approach to co integration was used. The explanatory variables were defined into economic, demographic and supply side categories. The data were collected from the official websites of the Iranian Statistics Centre, Central Bank of Iran, and the Ministry of Health. Results: we found health care expenditures as necessary goods in both short-term and long-term. In long-term, per capita income (β = 0.815, P-value = 0.033), elderly population (β = - 1.790, P-value < 0.001), and physician density (β = 3.204, P-value = 0.004) had effect on health care expenditure. In short-term per capita income (β = 0.577, P-value = 0.026) was the only factor that significantly affected health care expenditure. Conclusion: Government health expenditure is necessary goods in both short and long run. Thus governmental health care expenditure does should grow proportional to increase in national income. This could result to decrease in out of pocket payment

بررسی اخلاقی شاخص‏های تخصیص کبد پیوندی به بیماران نیازمند در مرکز پیوند اعضای بیمارستان نمازی شیراز

One of the most effective methods for many end stage liver patients is organ transplantation. The main source of transplantable liver is cadaveric organ. Since, the demand for such organs is more than procured livers, selecting is inevitable and usually debatable. In Shiraz organ transplantation center, the candidates are ranked based on MELD score. According to this ranking method, the patient who holds the highest score will be at the top of the transplantation list and priority for receiving organs. Although using MELD score decreases the mortality rate of people on the waiting list, but it cannot predict mortality rate after transplantation. So, in this regard, we are going to discuss the ethical issues about priority setting of end stage liver patients for liver transplantation in Shiraz Organ Transplantation Center.یکی از مؤثرترین راه‏های درمان بسیاری از بیماران پیشرفته کبدی، پیوند کبد است. منبع عمده پیوند کبد در مرکز پیوند اعضای شیراز، از مرگ مغزی بوده و به دلیل کمبود ارگان پیوندی و از سوی دیگر تقاضای روزافزون برای پیوند، بین عرضه و تقاضای کبد تعادل برقرار نیست. به همین دلیل انتخاب کاندیدای مناسب پیوند بسیار بحث‌انگیز است. در حال حاضر در مرکز پیوند اعضای شیراز، کاندیداهای پیوند کبد بر اساس نمره مِلد رتبه‏بندی می‏شوند و بیماری که بیشترین نمره را کسب کند، برای پیوند انتخاب می‏شود، اگرچه با بکاربستن نمره مِلد در رتبه‌بندی بیماران نیازمند، مرگ و میر در لیست انتظار کاهش یافته است، اما این سیستم نمی‏تواند به خوبی مرگ و میر پس از پیوند را پیش‏بینی کند. بنابراین در این مقاله هدف بر آن است تا نکات اخلاقی مرتبط با پیوند کبد و نحوه رتبه‏ بندی بیماران مورد بحث و بررسی قرار گیرد

Do Celebrities Want to be Treated Differently in Health System? Using Fame in a Controversial Way

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Measuring the Efficiency of a Hospital based on the Econometric Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) Method

Introduction: Hospitals are the most expensive health services provider in the world. Therefore, the evaluation of their performance can be used to reduce costs. The aim of this study was to determine the efficiency of the hospitals at the Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences using stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). Methods: This was a cross-sectional and retrospective study that assessed the performance of Kurdistan teaching hospitals (n = 12) between 2007 and 2013. The Stochastic Frontier Analysis method was used to achieve this aim. The numbers of active beds, nurses, physicians, and other staff members were considered as input variables, while the inpatient admission was considered as the output. The data were analyzed using Frontier 4.1 software. Results: The mean technical efficiency of the hospitals we studied was 0.67. The results of the Cobb-Douglas production function showed that the maximum elasticity was related to the active beds and the elasticity of nurses was negative. Also, the return to scale was increasing. Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that the performances of the hospitals were not appropriate in terms of technical efficiency. In addition, there was a capacity enhancement of the output of the hospitals, compared with the most efficient hospitals studied, of about33%. It is suggested that the effect of various factors, such as the quality of health care and the patients’ satisfaction, be considered in the future studies to assess hospitals’ performances

Life Expectancy and its Socioeconomic Determinants in Iran

Introduction: Life expectancy at birth (LEB) is closely associated with the degree of economic and social development in developed and developing countries. This study aimed to examine the socioeconomic factors affecting LEB in Iran from 1985 to 2013. Methods: Time series analysis was used to examine the effects of key explanatory factors (GDP per capita, number of doctors per 10,000 population, degree of urbanization, food availability, CO2 emission, total fertility rate, inflation rate, and literacy rate) on LEB in Iran from 1985 to 2013. Study data were retrieved from the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), Iranian Statistical Center (ISC), and World Bank. Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) and Banergy, Dolado, and Master (BDM) tests, Engle Granger approach, and an ordinary least-square (OLS) model were used to achieve the aim of the study. Data analysis was performed by Stata V.12 software. Results: Our findings indicated that GDP per capita (p=0.003), number of doctors per 10,000 population (p=0.036), literacy rate (p=0.0001), and food availability (p=0.0001) have a positive and significant statistically effect on LEB. The relationship between total fertility rate and LEB was negative and significant (p=0.023). In addition, the effect of degree urbanization (p=0.811), CO2 emission (p=0.185), and inflation rate (p=0.579) on LEB were not significant. Conclusion: GDP per capita, number of doctors per 10,000 population, food availability, literacy rate, and total fertility were identified as the main factors affecting life expectancy in Iran. The study, however, suggests that life expectancy in Iran could be improved if attention is given to factors that reside outside of the health sector