Prenatal care: Mechanisms and impacts on infant health and health care utilization

We estimate that prenatal care has positive impacts on health measured at birth, shifts the distribution of future health care utilization away from inpatient care, and find that some of these impacts likely come from an informational mechanism. We also find well child visits are used in a complementary fashion with emergency department care in the production of infant health, suggesting that factors beyond barriers to access may drive the demand for emergency care. Finally, we find differential impacts of prenatal care across racial groups with evidence that the information mechanism may be particularly important for black mothers.     

孵化网络结构、风险传播对孵化网络最终健康水平的影响——结构可视化的调节作用

风险在孵化网络中的传播影响孵化网络健康水平,并会导致在孵企业高失败率与低成长率。为实现有效的网络治理,以两家国家级孵化器形成的实际网络为例,运用复杂网络理论中的SIR模型和仿真方法,模拟特定情境下风险在不同网络结构中的传播机理及其对孵化网络最终健康水平的影响。研究发现：孵化网络结构、风险传播与网络健康间具有显著相关性;在低初始健康分布情景下,无标度网络具有更快的恢复速度;在不同网络结构下,可视化水平均有助于提升孵化网络风险化解能力。     

Modelling the influence of caring for the elderly on migration: estimates and evidence from Indonesia

In a society where children are expected to support the elderly, the ill health of an elderly parent is likely to influence an individual's propensity to migrate. Using data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey, we examine the manner in which the responsibility to care for an elderly parent who is in poor health affects the migration decisions of working-age adults. Our analysis suggests that individuals will be less likely to migrate if they have elderly parents who are in poor health. These findings are robust to specifications using alternative measures of poor health.     

The normalization of deviance in healthcare delivery

Many serious medical adversities result from violations of recognized standards of practice. Over time, even egregious violations of standards of practice may become “normalized” in healthcare delivery systems. This article describes what leads to this normalization and explains why flagrant practice deviations can persist for years, despite the importance of the standards at issue. This article also provides recommendations to aid healthcare organizations in identifying and managing unsafe practice deviations before they become normalized and pose genuine risks to patient safety, quality care, and employee morale.     

韩国疗养保健客源市场分析

疗养保健客源市场是发展涉外疗养保健服务贸易的关键所在。早在2000年韩国已经步入老龄化社会,且老龄化趋势持续进一步加剧。利用韩国统计厅公布的资料,从韩国的人口结构、医疗保健、社会环境、社会福利分析入手,深入研究韩国疗养保健客源市场,发现韩国特定的人口结构状况及医疗保健等方面存在诸多问题,可为我国开发韩国老龄人口疗养保健市场提供可能性和必要性。     

美国生物医学研究概况

美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）专司是美国唯一一家国家级公立生物医学研究机构，负责生物医学领域的研究和管理。在关联邦机构中，NIH掌管的研发经费仅次于国防部。本文对NIH的科研投入情况、资助计划和发展方向进行介绍和分析，旨在从宏观上把握美国生物医学的总体发展水平和重点方向。     

Who has benefited from the health services system for the elderly in Japan?

This paper examines the demand and supply of medical services for the elderly in the health services system characterized by per-month fixed copayment and selective capitation fee scheme for outpatients with chronic diseases. The results indicate that the beneficiary, in particular the household dependent, visits a physician more frequently because the actual copayment decreases for the household dependent, but is nearly the same for the head of the household. Physicians, however, provide more services to the beneficiary partly because of the lowered copayment and partly because of the capitation fee scheme, which they will select instead of the fee-for-service scheme only when capitation is more profitable than Fee-for-Service. As a result, physicians as well as the insured benefit from the health services system.     

Embedding consumer culture in health and social care education – a university office's perspective

Health and social care services are changing – and this change is radical. Service user and carer involvement has been a key aspect of health and social care policy for a number of years. In terms of the National Health Service (NHS), this has been significantly strengthened by the report ‘High Quality Care for All’. The NHS will no longer be a monolith dictating what services it offers. It is beginning to take seriously the views of its consumers: the patients, service users and carers. The NHS is starting to put the patient experience at the centre of everything it does, and its regulators are asking for evidence of public and patient involvement. This process may yet prove to be one of the NHS' greatest challenges as it transforms to prioritize the consumer viewpoint. Social care, though further down the line in relation to involvement, is now responding to the relatively new personalization agenda. This paper will consider what the university sector can do to embed the consumer and service culture within the education of health and social care professionals. It looks at the challenges of involvement and required culture change, highlighting the key points to address in the early and middle stages of involvement from a university office's perspective. It includes examples of consumer involvement in teaching, assessment and the selection of students and how their input is starting to make a difference. Finally, the paper outlines what is needed in a development office to establish and support effective service user and carer involvement on health and social care courses in higher education. The article concludes by acknowledging that there is much more work that needs to be done in this field to embed the work of a development office, but that early steps have been promising.     

Changing laundry habits in Norway

Maintenance is often the most energy‐demanding stage during clothes' life cycle. Therefore, a shift towards more sustainable washing habits has great potential to reduce the consumption of energy, water and detergent. This paper discusses the change in laundering practices during the past 10 years in Norway and suggests strategies to help consumers change their laundry habits to more sustainable ones. Quantitative information of consumers' experiences, habits and opinions concerning clothing maintenance was collected through three surveys in Norway in 2002, 2010 and 2011. The 2010 study was supplemented with qualitative in‐depth interviews of a strategic sample of households. The average washing temperature has decreased slightly during the studied time periods. Some products' washing frequencies remained the same, whereas other products such as jeans were used a few more days before washing. The cotton programme is the most used washing programme, but short programmes are gaining popularity. The laundry sorting processes vary greatly and are influenced by several factors such as washing temperature, colours, fibre type and use area. For some consumers, the use of several different sorting categories made it more difficult to collect a sufficient amount of clothing to fill the machine. They were also afraid that overfilling the machine would result in clothes that were not clean enough or had detergent residues. Detergent dosing practices are far from optimal. In 2010, although the majority of respondents only used eye measure and did not know the water hardness of their area, they still tried to vary detergent dosage based on the amount of laundry and the level of soiling. Different design for sustainable behaviour strategies could be used within detergent dosage systems, care labelling, machine programme selection (such as suggesting lower temperature and eco‐programme), machine filling grade indicators, storage systems for slightly used clothing and textile material choice.