1,720,975 research outputs found
Enrollment and Uptake of Health Care Financing Schemes among Adult Inpatients in Baringo County, Kenya
Full text linkA high burden of healthcare expenditure precludes the poor from access to quality healthcare services. Due to the dearth of studies detailing healthcare financing in rural-based counties in Kenya, the study examined enrolment and uptake of healthcare financing schemes among adult inpatients in Baringo County, Kenya. The study employed a descriptive cross-sectional research design and was situated in Baringo County Referral Hospital with a target population of about 8,400 monthly or more than 100,000 patients annually. A sample size of 398 patients/and or caregivers was selected based on the stratified simple random sampling method. The results indicated age > 35 years (OR = 0.76120, p = 0.004), Occupation (OR = 0.65730, p = 0.000), income levels (OR = 1.67921, p = 0.000), marital status (OR = 0.38342, p = 0.000) and household size > 4 but less than 9 (OR = 3.66847, p = 0.000) and explain about 21.58 per cent in the enrolment in a healthcare insurance scheme. The conclusions are that demographic factors (age, marital status, occupation, income levels and household size) influence enrolment This implies that young unmarried individuals < 35 years, employed with income > Ksh 20,000 and with household size < 5 persons were more likely to enrol for a healthcare financial scheme. The study recommends that a universal healthcare financing scheme should be implemented to make healthcare financing more affordable and accessible through policy intervention
Effects of community performance-based financing on community health workers’ service delivery in Kayanza health district, Burundi
Full text linkBackground:In many low-and middle-income countries, community services are often provided on a volunteer basis. To make their work more effective in the communities, some of them including Burundi adopted community performance-based financing as form of motivation of community health workers (CHWs). The study aimed to demonstrate the relationship between the community performance-based financing and health service delivery by the community health workers.Methods:It was a cross-sectional study using a comparative approach toassess the relationship with the performance-based financing scheme and the community services delivery. We used a stratified random sampling and inferential statistics used chi square and logistic regression.Results:The occupation of CHWs was significantly associated with counselling for early ANC (p=0.002), women attending early ANC and 4 ANC visits (p=0.000). Female were about 3 times likely to refer FP clients for FP methods uptake [p=0.043, CI= (1.030; 7.462), OR=2.773]. Farmers were 11 times as likely to perform this task as CHWs with other functions [p=0.000, CI= (3.890; 32.733), OR=11.284]. The CHWs who received 9 equipment and above [p=0.037, CI= (1.101)].Conclusions:The community performance-based financing has a significant relationship with the community health workers service delivery and should be enhanced by trainings, formative supervision, and provision of equipment. Occupation was identified as to predict this association. But further studies be conducted to establish other factors that complement the community performance-based financing in community services delivery
Health Effects of Occupational Lead Exposures among Informal Automobile Repair Artisans: A Case Study of Nakuru Town, Kenya Health Effects of Occupational Lead Exposures among Informal Automobile Repair Artisans: A Case Study of Nakuru Town, Kenya
Full text linkChronic, high-level lead exposure is known to be a risk factor for kidney and liver diseases.
The health effect of low-level occupational exposure to lead is less well known, particularly
among informal automobile repair artisans, a population that is at risk of occupational lead
exposures due to their predisposing occupational tasks. The study assessed blood lead levels
and associated health risks on estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and serum Alanine
Aminotransferase (ALT) activity among the study participants. A descriptive comparative study
was conducted and the participants included ( n = 3 0 ) occupationally exposed artisans and
( n = 3 0 ) non-exposed college students. Blood lead levels were analyzed using Atomic
Absorption Spectrophotometry according to the NIOSH 8003 method. Serum ALT activity
and eGFR measurements were conducted using Reflotron automated biochemical analyzer.
The eGFR was determined based on Modification of Diet in Renal Disease study (MDRD)
equation. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, regression analysis, ANOVA, and t-
test. The mean blood lead (BPb) level of the artisans (25.36μg/dl±2.62SE) was significantly
higher than that of the control participants (14.17μg/dl±1.74SE), (t (29) =3.65, p=0.001) and
exceeded the 20μg/dl WHO biological exposure index (BEI) of concern for adults, (p=0.049).The
artisans had a significantly decreased eGFR (128.37 mL/min/1.73m2 ± 4.37SE) compared to the
control participants (152.93 mL/min/1.73m2 ± 3.91SE), (t (29) = -4.49, p =0.000). Moreover, the
artisans had a lower mean serum ALT activity of (18.50 IU/L±1.63SE) compared to the control
participants (21.34 IU/L± 2.85SE). However, the difference was insignificant, (t (29) = 0.86, p = 0.40).
The study concluded that the artisans were occupationally exposed to lead and risked chronic
pathological effects on the kidney and liver functions. The key recommendation therefore is to
institute public health intervention measures to curb such occupational health risk among the
artisans
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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