Adoption of health information technologies: the case of a wireless monitor for diabetes and obesity patients

This paper explores what determines the adoption of health information technologies through the use of a case study of a wireless service prototype developed for patients with diabetes and obesity. A technology acceptance model was used as the basis for developing the theoretical framework, which was later tested through a field study. Results indicated that the usefulness of an e-health service was affected by the quality of service, its compatibility with users’ lifestyle, the quality of support, the quality of information presented in the service, usage time, image, accessibility, and ease-of-use characteristics of the service. Designers should develop services that do not require much usage time as users do not want to spend much time using the service. In addition, users should be able to access data presented in the service quickly and easily when they need it. Customisable menu items and short cut keys can be used to make data access quick and easy.     

Comprehensive assessment of patients with irritable bowel syndrome with constipation and chronic idiopathic constipation using deterministically linked administrative claims and patient-reported data: the Chronic Constipation and IBS-C Treatment and Outcomes Real-World Research Platform (CONTOR)

Abstract

Aims

To characterize a US population of patients with irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) or chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC) using CONTOR, a real-world longitudinal research platform that deterministically linked administrative claims data with patient-reported outcomes data among patients with these conditions.     

Optimal Retirement with Increasing Longevity

We develop an optimizing life‐cycle model of retirement with perfect capital markets. We show that longer healthy life expectancy usually leads to later retirement, but with an elasticity less than unity. We calibrate our model using data from the US and find that, over the last century, the effect of rising incomes, which promote early retirement, has dominated the effect of rising lifespans. Our model predicts continuing declines in the optimal retirement age, despite rising life expectancy, provided the rate of real wage growth remains as high as in the last century.     

中国老年人口自杀问题研究

老年人口是自杀率最高的人群。中国老年人口自杀率存在显著的性别差异、城乡差异和年龄差异。将我国老年人口自杀率与全球已进入老龄社会的国家作了对比,提出老年人口自杀率的三种不同模型。虽然我国老年人口的自杀率整体上呈下降趋势,但农村老年人口和高龄老年人口的自杀率仍然很高。应对老年人口自杀问题,一方面应着力解决相关的老龄问题,消除与减少老年人产生自杀意念的诱因;另一方面,要重点关切高自杀风险的老年群体,特别是群体中的男性老人、农村老人和高龄老人;还要高度重视老年人精神健康问题与精神卫生工作。     

Can the affordable care act provisions explain the recent wave of acquisitions in the health insurance industry?

This research shows that the ACA health insurance exchanges have generated more merger activity in the health insurance market. The impact is robust to control for an extensive set of factors suggested by both neoclassical and behavioural frameworks. The economic impact of this ACA provision is substantial with 3.8 more months of unusually high merger activity or 52 more merger bids per year.     

Analysis of the complexity of writing used in accounting textbooks over the past 100 years

The Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC) and the large international accounting firms have all emphasized that accountants must be able to work with unstructured problems to be successful in today's business environment. Measures of this ability are essential if accounting educators are to assist students in improving their abilities to work with unstructured problems. However, there appears to be no measure that has been widely accepted as being the ‘best’ measure. This study considers whether two linguistic performance measures might be usable by accounting educators for this purpose. We use data obtained from a student assessment centre to consider two measures of linguistic performance, idea density and grammatical complexity. We incorporate five criteria in deciding whether these measures could be usable: (1) whether the measures are related to students' performance when solving unstructured problems; (2) whether the measures distinguish between the ability to work with unstructured compared to structured problems; (3) ease of obtaining necessary information from students; (4) ease of scoring, and (5) robustness of the findings after considering other variables that may have an effect. Our results indicate that subjects' linguistic performance as measured by idea density meets these five criteria. However, grammatical complexity is not related to performance for either type of problem. These results were found even after controlling for the effects of other variables such as grade point average (GPA), experience, and personality variables. Because the measures can be obtained from virtually any written work produced by students, the information to be scored is relatively easy to obtain. Scoring is also relatively straightforward.     

公共娱乐场所从业人员生殖健康服务的调查分析--以长沙市为例

本研究探讨计划生育服务网络为公共娱乐场所提供生殖健康服务的干预模式。分析了基线调查数据。娱乐场所从业人员是一个高流动性的年轻群体,生殖保健知识欠缺,对性病艾滋病预防的认识仍有误区;他们的性观念开放,部分从业人员涉及商业性行为,已经成为传播性病艾滋病的高风险桥梁人群。基线调查为进一步开展生殖健康服务找到了干预重点和适宜的工作方式。     

Skill transferability,regret and mobility

After graduation many students start working in sectors not related to their field of study or participate in training targeted at work in other sectors. In this article, we look at mobility immediately after graduation from the perspective that educational choices have been made when these pupils had little experience of the actual working life in these professions. We develop a model where students accumulate partially transferable human capital but also learn about their professional preferences at the university and during the first years in the labour market. As a consequence of this newly acquired insight, these young workers might realize that working in another occupational field would better fit their preferences, although they are better equipped to work in their own field. The empirical analysis reveals that if wages are 1% lower due to lower skill transferability, the probability that a graduate who regrets his choice actually switches decreases by 1.4 percentage points, while those who switch on average take 0.3 months additional education.     

基于风景健康的海南省自贸区人居环境 空间研究

海南经过30年的经济特区建设已正式迈入自贸区建设的新时代，所面临的地区发展与生态维育矛盾逐步加剧。为保育海南优良的生态品质，提升海南人居环境空间质量，基于“健康、生态、人居”三元耦合与互动多赢的发展关系，提出与之适宜的风景园林健康理论；结合前人经验，以人居环境空间规划为切入点，解析人居环境空间研究内容。运用ArcGIS 10.2.2空间分析和Fragstats 4.2景观格局分析，解析海南省域三生空间敏感性、资源利用效率可持续性，以及资源服务范围与开发建设空间适宜性，结合人居环境空间发展特征，提出从全岛国土空间、资源统筹和空间营造3个方面进行规划引导，并提出以下观点：1)人类活动对资源环境和空间利用的合理性是有效保障海南人居环境空间的前提基础；2)遵循风景园林健康理论指导的全域国土空间规划、资源统筹规划和空间营造规划是提升海南人居环境空间的根本路径；3)“健康、生态、人居”三元耦合和互动多赢的关系均衡与协调是提升海南人居环境空间的终极目标。     

Impact of remittances on household health care expenditure: Evidence from the Nepal Living Standards Survey

This paper examines the effect of remittance inflows on health care expenditure in Nepal using the Nepal Living Standards Survey 2010–2011. Using the recursive three‐stage least square regression method, the propensity score matching method, and the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition method, we find a positive and significant effect of remittances on health care expenditure. In particular, our analysis shows a 0.099% increase in health care expenditure for every 1% increase in overall remittances. This effect increases to 0.189% for earned remittances (remittances received from a household member). We also find that remittance‐receiving households with at least one migrant family member have different health care spending behavior than those with no migrant members.