Health care utilization in the elderly Mexican population: Expenditures and determinants

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Worldwide population aging has been considered one of the most important demographic phenomena, and is frequently referred as a determinant of health costs and expenditures. These costs are an effect either of the aging process itself (social) or because of the increase that comes with older age (individual).</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>To analyze health expenditures and its determinants in a sample of Mexican population, for three dimensions acute morbidity, ambulatory care and hospitalization focusing on different age groups, particularly the elderly.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A secondary analysis of the Mexican National Health and Nutrition Survey (ENSANUT), 2006 was conducted. A descriptive analysis was performed to establish a health profile by socio-demographic characteristics. Logistic regression models were estimated to determine the relation between acute morbidity, ambulatory care, hospitalization and age group; to establish the determinants of hospitalization among the population 60 years and older; and to determine hospitalization expenditures by age.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Higher proportion of elderly reporting health problems was found. Average expenditures of hospitalization in households were $240.6 am dlls, whereas in households exclusively with elderly the expenditure was$308.9 am dlls, the highest among the considered age groups. The multivariate analysis showed higher probability of being hospitalized among the elderly, but not for risks for acute morbidity and ambulatory care. Among the elderly, older age, being male or living in a city or in a metro area implied a higher probability of hospitalization during the last year, with chronic diseases playing a key role in hospitalization.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The conditions associated with age, such as chronic diseases, have higher weight than age itself; therefore, they are responsible for the higher expenditures reported. Conclusions point towards a differentiated use and intensity of health services depending on age. The projected increase in hospitalization and health care needs for this group requires immediate attention.</p

A coincidence detection system based on real-time software

Conventional real-time coincidence systems use electronic circuitry to detect coincident pulses (hardware coincidence). In this work, a new concept of coincidence system based on real-time software (software coincidence) is presented. This system is based on the recurrent supervision of the analogue-to-digital converters status, which is described in detail. A prototype has been designed and built using a low-cost development platform. It has been applied to two different experimental sets for cosmic ray muon detection. Experimental muon measurements recorded simultaneously using conventional hardware coincidence and our software coincidence system have been compared, yielding identical results. These measurements have also been validated using simultaneous neutron monitor observations. This new software coincidence system provides remarkable advantages such as higher simplicity of interconnection and adjusting. Thus, our system replaces, at least, three Nuclear Instrument Modules (NIMs) required by conventional coincidence systems, reducing its cost by a factor of 40 and eliminating pulse delay adjustments

ORCA (Antarctic Cosmic Ray Observatory): 2018 Latitudinal Survey

A set of detectors devoted to investigate secondary cosmic rays has performed a latitudinal observation from Vigo (Spain) to Juan Carlos I Spanish Antarctic Station (Livingston Island, Antarctic Peninsula) aboard the Sarmiento de Gamboa oceanographic vessel from November $14^{th}$ to January $2^{nd}$. The experiment is split into two modules, one composed by a stack of 3NM64, three BF3 bare counters (NEMO) and a muon telescope (MITO) with a mini neutron monitor in a $20^{\prime}$ maritime container on the Sarmiento de Gamboa$^{\prime}$s deck and a second module (TRISTAN) consisting of a set of 3 RPC planes with a lead layer in between the second and the third plane placed in a separate temperature controlled room below the ship$^{\prime}$s deck. The complete set of instruments is the Antarctic Cosmic Ray Observatory (ORCA) that has been be installed in the Juan Carlos I Spanish Antarctic Base in Livingston Island (Antarctica). The latitudinal survey took ORCA throughout the South Atlantic magnetic anomaly along the Brazilian coast. ORCA is able to measure fluxes of neutrons of different energies, charged particles (mostly muons) and muon incident directions on the detector surface. In this work, we present the preliminary results of the latitudinal survey