122 research outputs found
Systematic review of individual-level, community-level, and healthcare system-level factors contributing to socioeconomic differences in healthcare utilisation in OECD countries with universal health coverage
Objectives Countries with universal health coverage (UHC) strive for equal access for equal needs without users getting into financial distress. However, differences in healthcare utilisation (HCU) between socioeconomic groups have been reported in countries with UHC. This systematic review provides an overview individual-level, community-level, and system-level factors contributing to socioeconomic status-related differences in HCU (SES differences in HCU).Design Systematic review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. The review protocol was published in advance.Data sources Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Econlit, and PsycInfo were searched on 9 March 2021 and 9 November 2022.Eligibility criteria Studies that quantified the contribution of one or more factors to SES difference in HCU in OECD countries with UHC.Data extraction and synthesis Studies were screened for eligibility by two independent reviewers. Data were extracted using a predeveloped data-extraction form. Risk of bias (ROB) was assessed using a tailored version of Hoyâs ROB-tool. Findings were categorised according to level and a framework describing the pathway of HCU.Results Of the 7172 articles screened, 314 were included in the review. 64% of the studies adjusted for differences in health needs between socioeconomic groups. The contribution of sex (53%), age (48%), financial situation (25%), and education (22%) to SES differences in HCU were studied most frequently. For most factors, mixed results were found regarding the direction of the contribution to SES differences in HCU.Conclusions SES differences in HCU extensively correlated to factors besides health needs, suggesting that equal access for equal needs is not consistently accomplished. The contribution of factors seemed highly context dependent as no unequivocal patterns were found of how they contributed to SES differences in HCU. Most studies examined the contribution of individual-level factors to SES differences in HCU, leaving the influence of healthcare system-level characteristics relatively unexplored
From test to rest:Evaluating socioeconomic differences along the COVID-19 care pathway in the Netherlands
IntroductionThe COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated healthcare needs and caused excess mortality, especially among lower socioeconomic groups. This study describes the emergence of socioeconomic differences along the COVID-19 pathway of testing, healthcare use and mortality in the Netherlands.MethodologyThis retrospective observational Dutch population-based study combined individual-level registry data from June 2020 to December 2020 on personal socioeconomic characteristics, COVID-19 administered tests, test results, general practitioner (GP) consultations, hospital admissions, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admissions and mortality. For each outcome measure, relative differences between income groups were estimated using log-link binomial regression models. Furthermore, regression models explained socioeconomic differences in COVID-19 mortality by differences in ICU/hospital admissions, test administration and test results.ResultsAmong the Dutch population, the lowest income group had a lower test probability (RRâ=â0.61) and lower risk of testing positive (RRâ=â0.77) compared to the highest income group. However, among individuals with at least one administered COVID-19 test, the lowest income group had a higher risk of testing positive (RRâ=â1.40). The likelihood of hospital admissions and ICU admissions were higher for low income groups (RRâ=â2.11 and RRâ=â2.46, respectively). The lowest income group had an almost four times higher risk of dying from COVID-19 (RRâ=â3.85), which could partly be explained by a higher risk of hospitalization and ICU admission, rather than differences in test administration or result.DiscussionOur findings indicated that socioeconomic differences became more pronounced at each step of the care pathway, culminating to a large gap in mortality. This underlines the need for enhancing social security and well-being policies and incorporation of health equity in pandemic preparedness plans
A flexible approach to identify interaction effects between moderators in meta-analysis.
In metaâanalytic studies, there are often multiple moderators available (eg, study characteristics). In such cases, traditional metaâanalysis methods often lack sufficient power to investigate interaction effects between moderators, especially highâorder interactions. To overcome this problem, metaâCART was proposed: an approach that applies classification and regression trees (CART) to identify interactions, and then subgroup metaâanalysis to test the significance of moderator effects. The aim of this study is to improve metaâCART upon two aspects: 1) to integrate the two steps of the approach into one and 2) to consistently take into account the fixedâeffect or randomâeffects assumption in both the the interaction identification and testing process. For fixed effect metaâCART, weights are applied, and subgroup analysis is adapted. For random effects metaâCART, a new algorithm has been developed. The performance of the improved metaâCART was investigated via an extensive simulation study on different types of moderator variables (ie, dichotomous, nominal, ordinal, and continuous variables). The simulation results revealed that the new method can achieve satisfactory performance (power greater than 0.80 and Type I error less than 0.05) if appropriate pruning rule is applied and the number of studies is large enough. The required minimum number of studies ranges from 40 to 120 depending on the complexity and strength of the interaction effects, the withinâstudy sample size, the type of moderators, and the residual heterogeneity.Multivariate analysis of psychological dat
Broadband Meter-Wavelength Observations of Ionospheric Scintillation
Intensity scintillations of cosmic radio sources are used to study
astrophysical plasmas like the ionosphere, the solar wind, and the interstellar
medium. Normally these observations are relatively narrow band. With Low
Frequency Array (LOFAR) technology at the Kilpisj\"arvi Atmospheric Imaging
Receiver Array (KAIRA) station in northern Finland we have observed
scintillations over a 3 octave bandwidth. ``Parabolic arcs'', which were
discovered in interstellar scintillations of pulsars, can provide precise
estimates of the distance and velocity of the scattering plasma. Here we report
the first observations of such arcs in the ionosphere and the first broad-band
observations of arcs anywhere, raising hopes that study of the phenomenon may
similarly improve the analysis of ionospheric scintillations. These
observations were made of the strong natural radio source Cygnus-A and covered
the entire 30-250\,MHz band of KAIRA. Well-defined parabolic arcs were seen
early in the observations, before transit, and disappeared after transit
although scintillations continued to be obvious during the entire observation.
We show that this can be attributed to the structure of Cygnus-A. Initial
results from modeling these scintillation arcs are consistent with simultaneous
ionospheric soundings taken with other instruments, and indicate that
scattering is most likely to be associated more with the topside ionosphere
than the F-region peak altitude. Further modeling and possible extension to
interferometric observations, using international LOFAR stations, are
discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 17 figure
How small and medium enterprises are using social networks? Evidence from the Algarve region
The evolution of internet created new opportunities for small and medium enterprises (SME), among which are social networks. This work aims at analyzing the potential of these networks for the SME in Algarve, creating a questionnaire for the purpose. The empirical study revealed that some firms have already an integrated business strategy with social networks, as well as a group in the firm responsible for it. Most of their managers consider that social networks enhance performance, but few really measure these results. A categorical principal component analysis identified two dimensions of social networksâ use: social networks for product-client interaction and knowledge; and social networks with potential for marketing. A supplementary analysis (hierarchical clustering) identified three patterns of SMEâs involvement in social networks: cluster Social Net Level 1, cluster Social Net Level 2 and cluster Social Net Level 3. These groups validated the results described above, indicating a sustainable methodological approach
Visualization of Genomic Changes by Segmented Smoothing Using an L0 Penalty
Copy number variations (CNV) and allelic imbalance in tumor tissue can show strong segmentation. Their graphical presentation can be enhanced by appropriate smoothing. Existing signal and scatterplot smoothers do not respect segmentation well. We present novel algorithms that use a penalty on the norm of differences of neighboring values. Visualization is our main goal, but we compare classification performance to that of VEGA
Optimized Trigger for Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic-Ray and Neutrino Observations with the Low Frequency Radio Array
When an ultra-high energy neutrino or cosmic ray strikes the Lunar surface a
radio-frequency pulse is emitted. We plan to use the LOFAR radio telescope to
detect these pulses. In this work we propose an efficient trigger
implementation for LOFAR optimized for the observation of short radio pulses.Comment: Submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research
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Clinical Heterogeneity of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD): Definition of Sub-Phenotypes and Predictive Criteria by Long-Term Follow-Up
International audienceBACKGROUND: To explore clinical heterogeneity of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), viewed as a major obstacle to the interpretation of therapeutic trials METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A retrospective single institution long-term follow-up study was carried out in DMD patients with both complete lack of muscle dystrophin and genotyping. An exploratory series (series 1) was used to assess phenotypic heterogeneity and to identify early criteria predicting future outcome; it included 75 consecutive steroid-free patients, longitudinally evaluated for motor, respiratory, cardiac and cognitive functions (median follow-up: 10.5 yrs). A validation series (series 2) was used to test robustness of the selected predictive criteria; it included 34 more routinely evaluated patients (age>12 yrs). Multivariate analysis of series 1 classified 70/75 patients into 4 clusters with distinctive intellectual and motor outcomes: A (early infantile DMD, 20%): severe intellectual and motor outcomes; B (classical DMD, 28%): intermediate intellectual and poor motor outcome; C (moderate pure motor DMD, 22%): normal intelligence and delayed motor impairment; and D (severe pure motor DMD, 30%): normal intelligence and poor motor outcome. Group A patients had the most severe respiratory and cardiac involvement. Frequency of mutations upstream to exon 30 increased from group A to D, but genotype/phenotype correlations were restricted to cognition (IQ>71: OR 7.7, 95%CI 1.6-20.4, p6 at 8 yrs" with "normal or borderline mental status" reliably assigned patients to group C (sensitivity: 1, specificity: 0.94). These criteria were also predictive of "early infantile DMD" and "moderate pure motor DMD" in series 2. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: DMD can be divided into 4 sub-phenotypes differing by severity of muscle and brain dysfunction. Simple early criteria can be used to include patients with similar outcomes in future therapeutic trials
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