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Economic evaluations in community aged care: a systematic review
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background: This paper reports the methods and findings from a systematic review of economic evaluations conducted in the community aged care sector between 2000 and 2016. Methods: Online databases searched were PubMed, Medline, Scopus, and web of science, CINAHL and informit. Studies were included if they 1) were full economic evaluations that compared both the costs and outcomes of two or more interventions 2) in study population of people aged 65 years and over 3) dependent older people living in the community 4) alternatives being compared were care models or service delivery interventions in the community aged care sector (a group of programs that have been established as a support system to allow older people to remain living in their own homes for as long as possible, as an alternative to institutional or residential care) and 5) published in the English language between 2000 and November 2016. Results: Eleven studies reporting upon economic evaluations of service delivery interventions in community aged care were identified; the majority of which were undertaken in Europe. Critical appraisal of the identified studies highlighted the methodological rigour in these evaluations. Conclusion: This systematic review highlights the paucity of economic evaluation studies conducted to date in the community aged care sector. The findings highlight the importance of cost utility analysis methodology as it allows for a uniform outcome measure, that facilitates the comparison of different interventions. In addition, multi-attribute utility measures that represent those quality of life domains that are most important to older people should be used and attention must be paid to the inclusion of informal care costs and outcomes as this is a key resource in community aged care service delivery
Standardisation of synovial biopsy analyses in rheumatic diseases: a consensus of the EULAR Synovitis and OMERACT Synovial Tissue Biopsy Groups
Following publication of the original article [1], the authors reported an error in the spelling of the ninth author’s name.
Incorrect spelling: Soeren Andreas Just.
Correct spelling: Søren Andreas Just.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background: The aim of this global collaboration was to develop a consensual set of items for the analysis of synovial biopsies in clinical practice and translational research through the EULAR Synovitis Study Group (ESSG) and OMERACT Synovial Tissue Biopsy Group.
Methods: Participants were consulted through a modified Delphi method. Three sequential rounds occurred over 12 months. Members were sent a written questionnaire containing items divided into two parts. Items were identified and formulated based on a scoping review. The first part of the questionnaire referred to synovial biopsies in clinical practice including five subsections, and the second part to translational research with six subsections. Every participant was asked to score each item on a 5-point Likert scale. Items with a median score above 3.5 and a >70% agreement were selected for the next round. The last round was conducted orally at EULAR in June 2017. Results: Twenty-seven participants from 19 centers were contacted by email. Twenty participants from 17 centers answered. Response rates for next rounds were 100%. For the first part relating to clinical practice, 20/44 items (45.5%) were selected. For the second part relating to translational research, 18/43 items (41.9%) were selected for the final set. Conclusions: We herein propose a consensual set of analysis items to be used for synovial biopsies conducted in clinical practice and translational research. Correction: Following publication of the original article [1], the authors reported an error in the spelling of the ninth author's name
Transnational Literature December 2018: Complete fiction and life-writing
Complete short stories and life-writing, Transnational Literature December 2018, including two stories in translation. Creative and life-writing editor Ruth Starke; Translations Editor Md Rezaul Haque
Teachable moments: how can the community capitalise on existing and future support services to improve the mental health and wellbeing of ‘new’ fathers?
This publication is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.The South Australian Mental Health Commission (SAMHC) released the South Australian Mental Health Strategic Plan in December 2017, with the aim of building, sustaining and strengthening the mental health and wellbeing of South Australians. Given the prevalence of fathers who experience anxiety and depression during their partner’s pregnancy and following the birth of their baby, and the tendency of this population to be less likely to seek out help for these issues, SMS4DadsSA – a perinatal mental health support pilot project for expectant fathers – was approved as one of the inaugural projects to commence implementation of the strategic plan. In order to gain a broader understanding of the evidence base in the area of ‘new’ fathers, and to position the future outcomes of the pilot project, SAMHC decided to collaborate with Flinders University to undertake a research analysis of the efficacy of interventions that seek to improve the mental health of ‘new’ fathers. Given the wide range of methodologies and designs of research in this area, a narrative synthesis, as compared to a meta-synthesis or meta-analysis, was chosen to capture these objectives.SA Mental Health Commissio
Independent Evaluation, Final Report: Being with Baby Program, FamilyZone, Ingle Farm
Introduction: The evaluation of one of the programs provided by the Communities for Children initiative (CfC) is resented here. This Salvation Army, FamilyZone Ingle Farm Hub commissioned report is divided into five sections. The first section presents the background information on the CfC Initiative including an outline of the demographic and epidemiological outcomes for children in the Ingle Farm, and surrounding areas. This section addresses the need for CfC iterventions given the high rates of vulnerability in the children living in this area. Additionally, the introduction outlines briefly some of research process used. Section three provides the theoretical and evidence base for the models of care and the therapeutic models of care that are commonly used in the FamilyZone Community Hub model and in the Being with Baby program. The literature review provides substantial international evidence base for the Being with Baby and use of the community hub model for service delivery, such as FamilyZone, for decreasing accumulative harm, abuse and neglect of infants and small children. Subsequent sections provide research evidence and results on the therapeutic models of care specific to the Being with Baby program. The report also provides a conclusion for the Being with Baby program in the FamilyZone setting
Isolated Neurogenic Bladder Associated With Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 Infection in a Renal Transplant Patient From Central Australia: A Case Report
© 2018 Elsevier Inc. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (Sept 2018) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyHuman T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is endemic amongst the Aborigines of the Northern Territory of Australia. HTLV-1 associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) has been associated with this infection. In general population, isolated neurogenic bladder dysfunction in HTLV-1-infected individuals without HAM/TSP has been reported, and the HTLV-1 proviral load has been found to be higher in such patients compared with asymptomatic carriers. In solid organ transplantation, few cases of HAM/TSP have been reported worldwide, but not an isolated neurogenic bladder.
Case
A 50-year-old indigenous women from Alice Springs with end stage renal disease secondary to diabetic nephropathy with no prior history of bladder dysfunction received a cadaveric renal allograft following which she developed recurrent urinary tract infections. The recipient was seropositive for HTLV-1 infection. HTLV-1 status of donor was not checked. Urodynamic studies revealed stress incontinence and detrusor overactivity without urethral intrinsic sphincter deficiency. She had no features of myelopathy. There was elevation of the serum and cerebrospinal fluid HTLV-1 proviral load. The magnetic resonance imaging myelogram was normal. Pyelonephritis was diagnosed based on clinical features, positive cultures, and renal allograft biopsy. Continuous suprapubic catheter drainage helped preventing further episodes of allograft pyelonephritis in spite of chronic colonization of the urinary tract.
Conclusion
Isolated bladder dysfunction is a rare manifestation of HTLV-1 infection and is probably associated with high proviral loads. This may adversely affect renal allograft and patient outcomes
Efficacy of High-Dose, Rapid, Hepatitis A and B Vaccination Schedules in Patients With Cirrhosis
© 2018 by the AGA Institute. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (Auguist 2018) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyPatients with cirrhosis have increased morbidity from hepatitis A (HAV) and B (HBV) infections, and vaccination against these infections is an important standard of care. However, vaccination in patients with cirrhosis is hindered by immune dysfunction and there is limited high quality literature available. The aim of this work was therefore to compare immune responses of standard dose (SD) with high dose, accelerated (HDA) vaccination in cirrhotic patients
Collaborative population health planning between Australian primary health care organisations and local government: lost opportunity
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.Objective: To examine the strength and extent of collaborations between primary health care organisations and local government in population health planning.
Methods: Methods included: a) online surveys with Medicare Locals (n=210) and Primary Health Networks (n=66), comparing the two using two‐level mixed models; b) interviews with Medicare Local (n=50) and Primary Health Network (n=55) executives; c) interviews with members of local government associations and Primary Health Network board members with local government experience (n=7); and d) review of 54 Medicare Local and 31 Primary Health Network publicly available annual reports.
Results: Despite partnership being a policy objective for Medicare Locals/ Primary Health Networks, they reported limited time and financial support for collaboration with local government. Organisational capacity and resources, supportive governance and public health legislation mandating a role for local governments were critical to collaborative planning.
Conclusions: Local government has the potential to tackle social factors affecting health; therefore, their inclusion in population health planning is valuable. Legislative mandates would help to achieve this, and PHNs require a stronger Federal Government mandate backed by sufficient resources and a governance structure that supports collaboration.
Implications for public health: Improving primary health care and local government collaboration has great potential to improve the quality of health planning and action on social determinants, thus advancing population health and health equity
Understanding Australian policies on public health using social and political science theories: reflections from an Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia Workshop
© The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.There is strong, and growing, evidence documenting health inequities across the world. However, most governments do not prioritize policies to encourage action on the social determinants of health and health equity. Furthermore, despite evidence concerning the benefits of joined-up, intersectoral policy to promote health and health equity, it is rare for such policy approaches to be applied systematically. To examine the usefulness of political and social science theory in understanding the reasons for this disjuncture between evidence and practice, researchers and public servants gathered in Adelaide for an Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) Workshop. This paper draws together the learnings that emerged from the Workshop, including key messages about the usefulness of various theories as well as insights drawn from policy practice. Discussions during the Workshop highlighted that applying multiple theories is particularly helpful in directing attention to, and understanding, the influence of all stages of the policy process; from the construction and framing of policy problems, to the implementation of policy and evaluation of outcomes, including those outcomes that may be unintended. In addition, the Workshop emphasized the value of collaborations among public health researchers, political and social scientists and public servants to open up critical discussion about the intersections between theory, research evidence and practice. Such critique is vital to render visible the processes through which particular sources of knowledge may be privileged over others and to examine how political and bureaucratic environments shape policy proposals and implementation action
Hypertension Status and Associations with Self-Rated Health and General Practitioner Health Seeking in a Rural Australian Cohort
© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Hypertension is the most frequently managed condition by Australian general practitioners (GP). Knowledge of hypertension and blood pressure (BP) values may motivate individuals to seek GP management. Our study aims to determine the associations of knowledge of BP values, BP perception, GP health seeking, and self-rated health (SRH) in a rural population. Two-hundred and seventy-eight (278) residents responded to the health survey on socio-demographic profile, medical history, BP knowledge and perception, SRH, and GP visit frequency. Associations were evaluated using Chi-squared test and multivariate logistic regression. Cohort mean age was 63.6 (12.4) years with 63.3% females. Hypertension (37.8%) was the most common condition. GP visits were made at least once every month (19.1%), every 2–6 months (35.6%), >6 months (11.5%), or only when needed (29.5%). Univariate analyses showed age, education, alcohol consumption, comorbidities, hypertension status, and SRH were significantly associated with visit frequency. After adjustments, hypertension status (OR = 3.6, 95% CI [1.7, 7.9]) and poor SRH (OR = 3.1, 95% CI [1.4, 7.0]) were significantly associated with frequent monthly visits. Our cohort demonstrated that having hypertension and poor self-rated health were associated with frequent monthly GP visits. The perception of high blood pressure does not drive seeking additional GP input