The economic burden of depression among adults with rheumatoid arthritis in the United States

Aims: Depression is the most frequent comorbidity reported among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Comorbid depression negatively impacts RA patients’ health-related quality-of-life, physical function, mental function, mortality, and experience of pain and symptom severity. The objective of this study was to assess healthcare utilization, expenditures, and work productivity among patients with RA with or without depression.

Materials and methods: Data from adult patients who had at least two visits each related to RA and depression over a 1-year period were extracted from the Truven Health MarketScan research databases. Outcomes comprised healthcare resource utilization, work productivity loss, and direct healthcare costs comparing patients with RA with depression (n?=?3,478) vs patients with RA without depression (n?=?43,222).

Results: Patients with RA and depression had a significantly greater relative risk of hospitalization and number of all-cause and RA-related hospitalizations, utilization of emergency services, days spent in the hospital, physician visits, and RA-related surgeries compared with RA patients without depression. Patients with RA and depression had a higher risk of and experienced more events and days of short-term disability compared with patients without depression. The incremental adjusted annual all-cause and RA-related direct costs were $8,488 (95% CI = $6,793–$10,223) and $578 (95% CI = –$98–$1,243), respectively, when comparing patients with RA and depression vs RA only.

Limitations: The current analysis is subject to the known limitations of retrospective studies based on administrative claims data.

Conclusions: This study suggested increased healthcare utilization, work productivity loss, and economic burden among RA patients due to comorbid depression. These findings emphasize the importance of managing depression and including depression as a factor when devising treatment algorithms for patients with RA.     

基于社会服务的示范性高职院校师资队伍建设——以广东农工商职业技术学院为例

服务是高职院校的第一宗旨,而社会服务能力的高低关键在于示范院校师资队伍建设。该文从广东农工商职业技术学院社会服务能力的实际情况出发,分析了该院师资队伍建设存在的问题,认为,首先应通过体制创新,提高教师社会服务意识;其次通过不同途径打造"双师型"教师团队,从而提升教师社会服务能力。     

C++对象布局分析

分析了目前最为流行的面向对象的开发工具C 的对象布局，并进一步分析了其形成原因。     

关于开展航海职业教育扶贫工作的探讨

建设新农村的核心环节是提高农民收入。对贫困地区进行扶贫是党和政府解决贫困地区农民问题的重要手段之一,其中心工作是提高农民收入。通过开展航海职业教育扶贫工作可以有效地帮助转移农村富余劳动力,提高农民综合素质,增加农民收入,增强农民自身的造血功能,彻底改变贫穷的面貌;同时也有利于促进航运业和航海职业教育的发展。开展航海职业教育扶贫工作是一个多方合作共赢的过程。     

中国银行业跨国并购的同心圆战略

当前的全球银行跨国并购浪潮，是在第五次全球企业并购浪潮下产生的，中国银行业要抓住这一历史机遇，通过实施“同心圆”战略，从企业竞争上升到产业竞争的高度去整合全球金融资源，建立起自己的产业价值链优势，在国际金融博弈中获得先发优势。     

关税、配额与补贴：效果分析与政策取向

关税、配额与补贴是一个国家用来保护国内市场、帮助国内厂商抵御国外对手竞争的常用措施.由于保护机制不同,关税、配额与补贴对不同利益主体的利益再分配会产生不同的影响.因此,一个国家可以根据其要保护的利益主体不同采取相应的保护措施.     

Innovative productivity and returns to scale in the pharmaceutical industry

This study shows that firms in the pharmaceutical industry experience decreasing returns to scale in R & D as the level of R & D expenditures rises. The paper presents the results of our study of the innovative output of 16 pharmaceutical firms over a 19 year period. Given the strong correlation between R & D budgets and firm size, our study suggests the wave of mergers in the industry may yield less innovative productivity than managers expect.     

我国企业变革方向的探讨

随着知识经济新时代的到来和我国加入国际贸易组织(WTO),我国企业面临着前所未有的挑战。本文针对这一新的形势,从企业的全球化、网络化、专业化、素质化四个方面探讨了企业变革的方向。     

金融资本国际化绩效与条件分析

金融资本国际化一方面促进利率水平提高,从而促进储蓄增加;另一方面影响投资规模和投资效率,进而影响经济绩效。一国实施金融资本国际化的条件可以分为国内条件,即初始条件和对外条件,即可实施条件两个方面。     

论网络生态学在管理中的应用

通过对生态学中生物群落等理论的阐述和分析,引发对网络生态学的基本概念与研究方法的探讨,给出了网络生态学的定义,并指出了网络生态学应该展开研究的3个领域。随后介绍了网络生态学的一些重要应用,例如,分析网络游戏产业的生态链,分析网络游戏产业存在的问题；建立电子信息产业的生态模型,并提出分析其生态环境的评价体系；以及运用生态学相关知识,建立科技自主创新生态群落模式。最后进行总结,并提出网络生态学进一步发展的方向。