440 research outputs found
Obesity and health expenditures: Evidence from Australia
© 2015 Elsevier B.V. Rising rates of obesity are a public health concern in every industrialized country. This study investigates the relationship between obesity and health care expenditure in Australia, where the rate of obesity has tripled in the last three decades. Now one in four Australians is considered obese, defined as having a body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) of 30 or over. The analysis is based on a random sample survey of over 240,000 adults aged 45 and over that is linked at the individual-level to comprehensive administrative health care claims for the period 2006-2009. This sub-population group has an obesity rate that is nearly 30% and is a major consumer of health services. Relative to the average annual health expenditures of those with normal weight, we find that the health expenditures of those with a BMI between 30 and 35 (obese type I) are 19% higher and expenditures of those with BMI greater than 35 (obese type II/III) are 51% higher. We find large and significant differences in all types of care: inpatient, emergency department, outpatient and prescription drugs. The obesity-related health expenditures are higher for obese type I women than men, but in the obese type II/III state, obesity-related expenditures are higher for men. When we stratify further by age groups, we find that obesity has the largest impact among men over age 75 and women aged 60-74 years old. In addition, we find that obesity impacts health expenditures not only through its link to chronic diseases, but also because it increases the cost of recovery from acute health shocks
The impact of CHIP premium increases on insurance outcomes among CHIP eligible children
Background: Within the United States, public insurance premiums are used both to discourage private health policy holders from dropping coverage and to reduce state budget costs. Prior research suggests that the odds of having private coverage and being uninsured increase with increases in public insurance premiums. The aim of this paper is to test effects of Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) premium increases on public insurance, private insurance, and uninsurance rates. Methods: The fact that families just below and above a state-specific income cut-off are likely very similar in terms of observable and unobservable characteristics except the premium contribution provides a natural experiment for estimating the effect of premium increases. Using 2003 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) merged with CHIP premiums, we compare health insurance outcomes for CHIP eligible children as of January 2003 in states with a two-tier premium structure using a cross-sectional regression discontinuity methodology. We use difference-in-differences analysis to compare longitudinal insurance outcomes by December 2003. Results: Higher CHIP premiums are associated with higher likelihood of private insurance. Disenrollment from CHIP in response to premium increases over time does not increase the uninsurance rate. Conclusions: When faced with higher CHIP premiums, private health insurance may be a preferable alternative for CHIP eligible families with higher incomes. Therefore, competition in the insurance exchanges being formed under the Affordable Care Act could enhance choice
Laboratory testing and diagnostic coding for cytomegalovirus among privately insured infants in the United States: a retrospective study using administrative claims data
Economic upturns are good for your heart but watch out for accidents: a study on Swedish regional data 1976–2005
Effect of having private health insurance on the use of health care services: the case of Spain
Background: Several stakeholders have undertaken initiatives to propose solutions towards a more sustainable health system and Spain, as an example of a European country affected by austerity measures, is looking for ways to cut healthcare budgets. Methods: The aim of this paper is to study the effect of private health insurance on health care utilization using the latest micro-data from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP), the Spanish National Health Survey (SNHS) and the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). We use matching techniques based on propensity score methods: single match, four matches, bias-adjustment and allowing for heteroskedasticity. Results: The results demonstrate that people with a private health insurance, use the public health system less than individuals without double health insurance coverage.
Conclusions: Our conclusions are useful when policy makers design public-private partnership policie
The association between state mandates of colorectal cancer screening coverage and colorectal cancer screening utilization among US adults aged 50 to 64 years with health insurance
Search for rare quark-annihilation decays, B --> Ds(*) Phi
We report on searches for B- --> Ds- Phi and B- --> Ds*- Phi. In the context
of the Standard Model, these decays are expected to be highly suppressed since
they proceed through annihilation of the b and u-bar quarks in the B- meson.
Our results are based on 234 million Upsilon(4S) --> B Bbar decays collected
with the BABAR detector at SLAC. We find no evidence for these decays, and we
set Bayesian 90% confidence level upper limits on the branching fractions BF(B-
--> Ds- Phi) Ds*- Phi)<1.2x10^(-5). These results
are consistent with Standard Model expectations.Comment: 8 pages, 3 postscript figues, submitted to Phys. Rev. D (Rapid
Communications
Dilaton dominance relaxes LHC and cosmological constraints in supersymmetric models
It has been pointed out recently that the presence of dilaton field in the
early Universe can dilute the neutralino dark matter (DM) abundance, if
Universe is not radiation dominated at DM decoupling, due to its
dissipative-like coupling to DM. In this scenario two basic mechanisms compete,
the modified Hubble expansion rate tending to increase the relic density and a
dissipative force that tends to decrease it. The net effect can lead to an
overall dramatic decrease of the predicted relic abundance, sometimes by
amounts of the order of O(10^2) or so. This feature is rather generic,
independent of any particular assumption on the underlying string dynamics,
provided dilaton dominates at early eras after the end of inflation but before
Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). The latter ensures that BBN is not upset by the
presence of the dilaton. In this paper, within the context of such a scenario,
we study the phenomenology of the constrained minimal supersymmetric model
(CMSSM) by taking into account all recent experimental constraints, including
those from the LHC searches. We find that the allowed parameter space is
greatly enlarged and includes regions that are beyond the reach of LHC. The
allowed regions are compatible with Direct Dark Matter searches since the small
neutralino annihilation rates, that are now in accord with the cosmological
data on the relic density, imply small neutralino-nucleon cross sections below
the sensitivities of the Direct Dark Matter experiments. It is also important
that the new cosmologically accepted regions are compatible with Higgs boson
masses larger than 120 GeV, as it is indicated from the LHC experimental data.
The smaller annihilation cross sections needed to explain WMAP data require
that the detector performances of current and planned indirect DM search
experiments through gamma rays should be greatly improved in order to probe the
CMSSM regions.Comment: 20 pages, 10 eps figures. Revised and extended version to appear in
JHEP; a section on gamma rays adde
Polyamide-Scorpion Cyclam Lexitropsins Selectively Bind AT-Rich DNA Independently of the Nature of the Coordinated Metal
Cyclam was attached to 1-, 2- and 3-pyrrole lexitropsins for the first time
through a synthetically facile copper-catalyzed “click” reaction.
The corresponding copper and zinc complexes were synthesized and characterized.
The ligand and its complexes bound AT-rich DNA selectively over GC-rich DNA, and
the thermodynamic profile of the binding was evaluated by isothermal titration
calorimetry. The metal, encapsulated in a scorpion azamacrocyclic complex, did
not affect the binding, which was dominated by the organic tail
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