scholarly journals Estimating the relationship between disease progression and cost of care in dementia

2002 ◽  
Vol 181 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane L. Wolstenholme ◽  
Paul Fenn ◽  
Alastair M. Gray ◽  
Janet Keene ◽  
Robin Jacoby ◽  
...  

BackgroundPrevious studies have shown a positive relationship between disease severity and cost.AimsTo explore the factors affecting time to institutionalisation and estimate the relationship between the costs of care and disease progression.MethodRetrospective analysis of a longitudinal data-set for a cohort of 100 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or vascular dementia.ResultsChanges in both Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Barthel scores have independent and significant marginal effects on costs. Each one-point decline in the MMSE score is associated with a £56 increase in the four-monthly costs, whereas each one-point fall in the Barthel index is associated with a £586 increase in costs.ConclusionsIt may be inappropriate for economic models of disease progression in dementia to be based solely on measures of cognitive change. MMSE and the Barthel index are independent significant predictors of time to institutionalisation and cost of care, but changes in the Barthel index are particularly important in predicting costs outside institutional care.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 46-61
Author(s):  
Behzad Rsoolzadeh‌ ◽  
◽  
Rasoul Abbasi Taghidizaj ◽  
Sobhanali Forouzandeh‌ ◽  
◽  
...  

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the factors affecting students' academic achievement based on Thames international test data. Methods: The method of this study is quantitative comparative. The statistical sample of this study consists of eighth-grade students from 57 countries who participated in the 2015 Thames International Test. The data set was analyzed using the fuzzy logic approach. Results: The necessary and sufficient individual conditions showed that the conditions of the relationship between home and school, school social atmosphere, students' attitudes, and educational activities in the classroom are each a necessary condition, and family background is a sufficient condition for achievement (academic achievement). Conclusion: In the causal and combined causes, among the many causal paths, only one causal path based on theoretical and experimental adequacy criteria (coverage and adaptation coefficient) was of theoretical and experimental importance was necessary. In this causal path, family background and the relationship between home and school in combination provided a sufficient turning point in the occurrence of the desired result (academic success).


1993 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 129 ◽  
Author(s):  
DL Hopkins ◽  
AA Brooks ◽  
AR Johnston

Over a 12-month period, fat depths at the P8 rump and 12-13th rib sites were measured on 10968 beef carcasses at 4 Tasmanian abattoirs. All cattle were assigned to 1 of 5 breed types: British beef, dairy, dairy-beef cross, beef cross, and European and European cross. Dairy-beef cross and European breeds were excluded from the analysis because of small numbers. Sex and age (dentition) were recorded. As the data set was unbalanced and no single relationship between P8 rump and 12-13th rib sites applied, models describing the relationship between fat depths at the 2 sites were developed for subsets of the data. These showed that breed type, sex, age, season, and carcass weight all affected the relationship between fat depths at the 2 sites. In general, British beef and beef cross cattle could be considered as 1 group, but dairy cattle were different. In the former group, for the no-teeth age class a seasonal and sex effect was evident, giving rise to 4 models, 1 for each of the steer and heifer groups in winter-spring and summer-autumn. For the no-teeth dairy cattle there was no sex effect and all seasons were pooled to form an overall model. For older cattle (2, 4, and 8 teeth) there was significant monthly variation, and few overall models could be developed. In addition, the relationship between fat depths at the 2 sites was generally independent of carcass weight in older cattle. The analysis revealed that within the subcutaneous fat depot the relationship between sites for fat depth can be influenced by a range of variables.


Author(s):  
Cristina Cubillas

The study assessed the relationship between the factors affecting the academic achievement of the dean’s listers’ of Caraga State University. It involves the total population of the dean’s listers in the said university. The independent variables are those pre-determined factors’ affecting the academic achievement of the dean’s listers’ of Caraga State University and the dependent variable is the grades of the dean’s listers’. The result shows the low relationship between the pre-determined factors and the academic achievement evidenced by the values of the p-values which are greater than. In terms of the academic achievement of the dean’s listers’ their grades signify their excellence in their different chosen fields. With regards to the pre-determined factors, the factor that got the highest mean is the teachers’ competence with 3.7639 and the lowest one is the learning environment with 3.6690. The study habits’ got the second spot among the 4 factors followed by the learning styles. Based on Spearmen Correlation analysis in the data gathered, the results revealed that there is no significant relationship between the pre-determined factors and the academic achievement of the dean’s listers’ of Caraga State University. The p-values obtained are less than 0.05 for all the data set; which is accepting the null hypothesis. The results clearly depict that the students’ study habit, learning style teachers’ competence and the learning environment has no influence on the achievement reached by the dean’s listers’. On the other hand, it is still very important to make and to maintain these factors visible in the academic arena for better learning and for a better outcome. The absence of these factors might affect the performances of the students in Caraga State University.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 935-945
Author(s):  
I.A. Zaikova

Subject. The working time of workers at any stage of economic development is a value reflecting the level of labor productivity. Any progress in productivity contributes to changes in the volume of labor costs and the number of employed. Depending on the relationship between the total volume of labor costs and the number of employed, the duration of working time per one worker may change (it may increase, decrease, or remain unchanged). Objectives. The study aims to confirm the importance of such a macroeconomic indicator as the number of employed in varying working hours. Methods. The study rests on the comparative analysis of countries with developed economies based on some indicators like dynamics of the working time fund, dynamics of the number of employed, average number of hours worked during the year per employee, etc. The analyzed timespan is 25 years (from 1991 to 2016). Results. The comparative analysis revealed that in the non-production sphere and the economy as a whole the macroeconomic determinants correlate so that the length of working time per worker reduces. When considering the analysis results for the manufacturing sector, no single trend was identified. Conclusions. One of the key factors affecting the change in working hours is the number of employed. The relationship between the working time fund and the number of employed directly determines the dynamics of working time per worker.


Author(s):  
Miyoung Lee ◽  
Yeon-Suk Kim ◽  
Mi-Kyoung Lee

Prenatal depression is an important factor in predicting postpartum depression. Most studies have assessed factors affecting prenatal depression by focusing on pregnant wives. However, the emotional and psychological aspects of both expectant parents need to be considered. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of spouse-related stress in expectant couples on prenatal depression and investigate the mediating effects of marital intimacy on this relationship. A total of 120 expectant couples from two cities in Korea at more than 15 weeks of completed pregnancy participated in the study. Using a structured questionnaire, we assessed the general characteristics of the participants, spouse-related stress, prenatal depression, and marital intimacy. The results revealed that four actor effects and one partner effect were significant. Marital intimacy and prenatal depression among expectant parents were affected by spouse-related stress. Moreover, spouse-related stress in the husbands completely mediated marital intimacy in pregnant wives, demonstrating partner effects on prenatal depression in pregnant wives. Therefore, it was observed that paternal factors affect prenatal depression in pregnant wives. This warrants the inclusion of husbands in marital interventions and strategies to improve marital intimacy in pregnant wives.


2021 ◽  
Vol 99 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 218-219
Author(s):  
Andres Fernando T Russi ◽  
Mike D Tokach ◽  
Jason C Woodworth ◽  
Joel M DeRouchey ◽  
Robert D Goodband ◽  
...  

Abstract The swine industry has been constantly evolving to select animals with improved performance traits and to minimize variation in body weight (BW) in order to meet packer specifications. Therefore, understanding variation presents an opportunity for producers to find strategies that could help reduce, manage, or deal with variation of pigs in a barn. A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted by collecting data from multiple studies and available data sets in order to develop prediction equations for coefficient of variation (CV) and standard deviation (SD) as a function of BW. Information regarding BW variation from 16 papers was recorded to provide approximately 204 data points. Together, these data included 117,268 individually weighed pigs with a sample size that ranged from 104 to 4,108 pigs. A random-effects model with study used as a random effect was developed. Observations were weighted using sample size as an estimate for precision on the analysis, where larger data sets accounted for increased accuracy in the model. Regression equations were developed using the nlme package of R to determine the relationship between BW and its variation. Polynomial regression analysis was conducted separately for each variation measurement. When CV was reported in the data set, SD was calculated and vice versa. The resulting prediction equations were: CV (%) = 20.04 – 0.135 × (BW) + 0.00043 × (BW)2, R2=0.79; SD = 0.41 + 0.150 × (BW) - 0.00041 × (BW)2, R2 = 0.95. These equations suggest that there is evidence for a decreasing quadratic relationship between mean CV of a population and BW of pigs whereby the rate of decrease is smaller as mean pig BW increases from birth to market. Conversely, the rate of increase of SD of a population of pigs is smaller as mean pig BW increases from birth to market.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yufang Xiang ◽  
Yuanyuan Zheng ◽  
Shaobo Liu ◽  
Gang Liu ◽  
Zhi Li ◽  
...  

AbstractWestern blotting (WB) is one of the most widely used techniques to identify proteins as well as post translational modifications of proteins. The selection of electroblotted membrane is one of the key factors affecting the detection sensitivity of the protein which is transferred from gel to membrane in WB. The most common used membranes are polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and nitrocellulose (NC) membranes. Which membrane of these two is more suitable for WB has not been reported so far. Here, by incubating proteins which were transferred to PVDF or NC membranes with a series of antibodies and different types of lectins, we investigated the relationship between the binding ability of these two membranes to proteins or glycoproteins and the molecular weight of the target protein. The antibody re-probed ability of the two membranes was also explored. Moreover, we verified the above results by directly incubating proteins having different molecular weights onto PVDF or NC membranes. Bound proteins were stained with direct blue-71, and the staining intensity was quantitated by scanning and densitometry.


Diagnostics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1286
Author(s):  
Junya Sato ◽  
Kazunari Nakahara ◽  
Yosuke Michikawa ◽  
Ryo Morita ◽  
Keigo Suetani ◽  
...  

Endoscopic transpapillary gallbladder drainage (ETGBD) for acute cholecystitis is challenging. We evaluated the influence of pre-procedural imaging and cystic duct cholangiography on ETGBD. Patients who underwent ETGBD for acute cholecystitis were retrospectively examined. The rate of gallbladder contrast on cholangiography, the accuracy of cystic duct direction and location by computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP), and the relationship between pre-procedural imaging and the technical success of ETGBD were investigated. A total of 145 patients were enrolled in this study. Gallbladder contrast on cholangiography was observed in 29 patients. The accuracy of cystic duct direction and location (proximal or distal, right or left, and cranial or caudal) by CT were, respectively, 79%, 60%, and 58% by CT and 68%, 55%, and 58% by MRCP. Patients showing gallbladder contrast on cholangiography underwent ETGBD with a significantly shorter procedure time and a lower rate of cystic duct injury. No other factors affecting procedure time, technical success, and cystic duct injury were identified. Pre-procedural evaluation of cystic duct direction and location by CT or MRCP was difficult in patients with acute cholecystitis. Patients who showed gallbladder contrast on cholangiography showed a shorter procedure time and a lower rate of cystic duct injury.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document