The association between the severity of chronic kidney disease and medical costs among patients with type 2 diabetes

Aims: Examine healthcare costs across chronic kidney disease (CKD) stages for US patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D).

Materials and methods: IQVIA Real World Data Adjudicated Claims linked electronic medical records and insurance claims from January 1, 2012 through March 31, 2017 were used for this retrospective study. Adults diagnosed with T2D and comorbid CKD were included. General linear models incorporating splines were constructed, and information from these regressions were used to inform the relationship between medical costs and CKD. Multivariable analyses controlled for patient characteristics, vital signs, general health, prior medication use, prior visit to specialists, index A1c, and year of index date.

Results: There were 6,645 individuals who met the study criteria. Results generally indicate sharp increases in annual total medical costs and non-drug medical costs in the 1?year post-period for patients with Stage 4 or 5 CKD (estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR]?≤?30?mL/min/1.73 m²) with each 1 point reduction in eGFR from 30 associated with an increase of $1,870 in all-cause total medical costs (p?<?0.0001) and $1,805 of all-cause non-drug medical costs (p?<?0.0001). Similarly, each point decline below 30?mL/min was associated annual cost increases of $1,701 for CKD-related total medical costs, $1,695 for CKD-related non-drug medical costs, $173 for diabetes-related medical costs, and $187 for diabetes-related non-drug medical costs (all p?<?0.0001).

Limitations: The investigation included only patients with medical insurance and laboratory test results, and results may not be generalizable to all T2D patients with CKD. The methodology allowed us to determine associations, not causation, and potential confounders, such as duration of diabetes, diet, exercise, or social support, could not be assessed.

Conclusions: Results indicate there are sharp and significant increases in medical costs among T2D patients with Stage 4 and 5 CKD compared to those with earlier stages of CKD.     

Cultural Consonance in Leisure,Leisure Satisfaction,Life Satisfaction,and Self-Rated Health in Urban Taiwan

The purpose of this study threefold: to determine whether a shared cultural model of the importance of a set of leisure activities to a good leisure life existed in urban Taiwan, the degree to which cultural consonance in leisure mediates the relationship between leisure constraints and leisure satisfaction, and the degree to which leisure satisfaction affects life satisfaction and self-rated health. Results indicate that a cultural model of the importance of leisure activities to a good leisure life existed among sample members. Second, higher levels of self-reported participation in leisure activities that are culturally agreed upon as more important for a good leisure life are more strongly associated with leisure satisfaction than are activities culturally agreed upon as less important. Finally, leisure satisfaction strongly predicts both life satisfaction and self-rated health.     

Why Do Firms in Customer–Supplier Relationships Hold More Cash?

A firm is in customer–supplier relationships when its business depends on a small number of major customers/suppliers. In this paper, we provide evidence that relationship‐specific investments undertaken by firms in customer–supplier relationships are associated with high cash holdings in these firms. The evidence is consistent with the prediction of Titman's stakeholder theory that a firm relying on relationship‐specific investments maintains a high cash reserve as a cushion to sustain its relationship‐specific investments when negative shocks occur. Our findings suggest that relationship‐specific investments are important determinants of the precautionary motive to hold cash.     

Entrepreneurial spawning and knowledge-based perspective: a meta-analysis

Entrepreneurial spawning is the transitory process by which employees of an existing firm leave their employment to initiate a new business venture. There is a lack of consensus regarding the predictors of entrepreneurial spawning. We used meta-analysis to analyze 28 studies (with 128 effect sizes) to examine the predictors of entrepreneurial spawning. Based on knowledge-based perspective, we hypothesize that employee characteristics (age, education, and job position) and parent firm characteristics (firm age, firm performance, and firm diversity) are significantly related to entrepreneurial spawning. We identified two inverted U-shaped relationships (age and tenure with entrepreneurial spawning) based on our meta-analytic hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Based on labor market rigidity perspectives, we also examined how country region (North America versus Europe) moderates the relationships between employee characteristics and entrepreneurial spawning and between parent firm characteristics and entrepreneurial spawning. Our paper provides theoretical and practical implications.     

We are more tolerant than I: self-construal and consumer responses toward deceptive advertising

Marketing Letters - Deceptive advertising, or advertising that intends to mislead consumers by false claims or incomplete disclosure, is ubiquitous in the marketplace. Though prior research has...     

Does knowing the volatility states affect the market risk premium?

Mayfield (J Financ Econ 73:465–496, 2004) has devised a method for estimating the market risk premium, based on a variant of Merton’s ICAPM wherein volatility is specified as a two-state Markov process. In this study, we assess Mayfield’s key assumption that investors know the current volatility state with certainty, via empirical testing of the assumption of exogenous Markov-switching in Mayfield’s model. We detect strong evidence of endogenous switching. This indicates that investors infer the current volatility state, as opposed to simply observing it. We also find that the risk premium estimates are affected by the switching type.     

Variations in human resource management in Asian countries: MNC home-country and host-country effects

This paper investigates the determinants of HRM strategy in a random sample of firms operating in Korea and Taiwan. Both indigenous and foreign-owned firms are studied. HRM strategy is measured in terms of the company's reliance on high-performance, versus more traditional, HRM policies and practices in several different areas, including staffing, employee influence, employee rewards and employee autonomy. Independent variables include the firm's country or region of origin (USA, Japan, Europe, Korea or Taiwan), the host country (Korea or Taiwan) and the internal culture of the firm, as measured by upper management's perception that human resources constitute a significant source of value for the organization. Pronounced differences are found across countries of origin and between the two host countries. Managerial values and various organizational characteristics that serve as control variables are also found to impact on HRM strategy.     

Forest transition in South Korea: Reality, path and drivers

While forest transition (FT) in South Korea began in 1955, when forest cover was only 35% of national land area, significant increases in both forest cover and growing stock really occurred in the early 1970s. Using reconstructed historical records, we empirically demonstrate that (1) FT in South Korea was mainly accomplished by the recovery of degraded, non-stocked forest; and (2) one-dimensional FT analysis using forest area alone has severe limitations in diagnosing meaningful changes in forest sustainability. The key driver of FT in South Korea was the government-led reforestation policy. The comprehensive reforestation plans, started in 1973, not only provided economic incentives to the general public by establishing clear quantifiable goals, they also promoted inter-agency cooperation and coordination, especially between the energy and forest sectors, to replace firewood with fossil fuels. These government-led efforts, accompanied by rural-urban migration, brought an increase in stocked forest area and a complementary rising average growing stock level. The case of South Korea shows that FTs can be cultivated in a relatively short period of time by a central authority, even with imperfect governance and low economic development.     

Changes and continuities in South Korean HRM

The operating context of South Korean human resource management (HRM) has undergone radical shifts since we wrote our first piece in 1997 for a similar collection to this. This has undoubtedly influenced the practice of HRM. Therefore, the focus of this piece is to compare the current situation with the past and delineate the amount and type of such change vis-à-vis continuity in HRM. The contextual factors and issues, political and economic background, labour market situation, the 1997 Asian financial crisis and ramifications, are analysed. Then future possible scenarios and key issues are outlined.