Health problems awareness during travel among faculty members of a large university in Latin America: preliminary report

Health safety during trips is based on previous counseling, vaccination and prevention of infections, previous diseases or specific problems related to the destination. Our aim was to assess two aspects, incidence of health problems related to travel and the traveler's awareness of health safety. To this end we phone-interviewed faculty members of a large public University, randomly selected from humanities, engineering and health schools. Out of 520 attempts, we were able to contact 67 (12.9%) and 46 (68.6%) agreed to participate in the study. There was a large male proportion (37/44, 84.1%), mature adults mostly in their forties and fifties (32/44, 72.7%), all of them with higher education, as you would expect of faculty members. Most described themselves as being sedentary or as taking occasional exercise, with only 15.9% (7/44) taking regular exercise. Preexisting diseases were reported by 15 travelers. Most trips lasted usually one week or less. Duration of the travel was related to the destination, with (12h) or longer trips being taken by 68.2% (30/44) of travelers, and the others taking shorter (3h) domestic trips. Most travelling was made by air (41/44) and only 31.8% (14/44) of the trips were motivated by leisure. Field research trips were not reported. Specific health counseling previous to travel was reported only by two (4.5%). Twenty seven of them (61.4%) reported updated immunization, but 11/30 reported unchecked immunizations. 30% (9/30) reported travel without any health insurance coverage. As a whole group, 6 (13.6%) travelers reported at least one health problem attributed to the trip. All of them were males travelling abroad. Five presented respiratory infections, such as influenza and common cold, one neurological, one orthopedic, one social and one hypertension. There were no gender differences regarding age groups, destination, type of transport, previous health counseling, leisure travel motivation or pre-existing diseases. Interestingly, the two cases of previous health counseling were made by domestic travelers. Our data clearly shows that despite a significant number of travel related health problems, these highly educated faculty members, had a low awareness of those risks, and a significant number of travels are made without prior counseling or health insurance. A counseling program conducted by a tourism and health professional must be implemented for faculty members in order to increase the awareness of travel related health problems.

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Progression of mild cognitive impairment to dementia in German specialist practices

Dementia ◽

10.1177/1471301216673919 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 380-390 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jens Bohlken ◽

Louis Jacob ◽

Karel Kostev

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Impairment ◽

Health Insurance ◽

Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽

Cox Regression ◽

Insurance Coverage ◽

Age Groups ◽

Health Insurance Coverage ◽

Hazard Ratio ◽

Age Group

The goal of this study was to estimate the rate of the progression of mild cognitive impairment to dementia and identify the potential risk factors in German specialist practices from 2005 to 2015. This study included 4633 patients aged 40 years and over from 203 neuropsychiatric practices, who were initially diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment between 2005 and 2013. The primary outcome was diagnosis of all-cause dementia recorded in the database until the end of the five-year follow-up period. Cox regression models were used to examine mild cognitive impairment progression to dementia when adjusted for confounders (age, sex, and health-insurance type). The mean age was 68.9 years and 46.6% were men. After the five-year follow-up period, 38.1% of women and 30.4% of men had been diagnosed with dementia ( p < 0.001). The share of subjects with dementia increased with age, rising from 6.6% in the age group of ≤ 60 years to 64.7% in the age group of > 80 years ( p < 0.001). Men were at a lower risk of being diagnosed with dementia than women (hazard ratio = 0.86). Patients in the age groups 61–70, 71–80, and > 80 years also had a higher risk of developing this psychiatric disorder, with hazard ratios ranging from 3.50 to 11.71. Finally, mild cognitive impairment was less likely to progress to dementia in people with private health-insurance coverage than in people with public health-insurance coverage (hazard ratio = 0.69). Around one in three patients developed dementia in the five years following mild cognitive impairment diagnosis. Sex, age, and type of health insurance were associated with this risk.

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Gender Differences in Health Insurance Coverage in China

10.21203/rs.3.rs-55996/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Mei Zhou ◽

Shaoyang Zhao ◽

Zhi Zhao

Keyword(s):

Gender Differences ◽

Health Insurance ◽

Gender Gap ◽

Insurance Coverage ◽

Age Groups ◽

Participation Rate ◽

Social Health Insurance ◽

Market Condition ◽

Chinese Government ◽

Education Group

Abstract Background: The Chinese government has been trying to build a universal public social health insurance (SHI) system since the early 2000s and has essentially achieved universal SHI coverage. By 2018, more than 97% of the entire Chinese population had SHI. However, there are still some obvious inequities in the SHI system. Methods: based on three datasets, we first use statistical methods to identify gender differences in health insurance. Next, we construct a simple multiple regression model to capture the differences in insurance coverage across age groups using the parameter of interaction terms for gender and age groups.Results: Based on data from a demographic survey that covers a large sample, we find that in the below 50 (in 2005) or 60 (in 2015) years age group, the coverage gap of urban employees' basic medical insurance (UEBMI) between men and women was relatively smaller, while a larger disparity existed in the above 50 (in 2005) or 60 (in 2015) group. Moreover, gender differences in health insurance were more pronounced in the low-education group, while no gender differences were found in the high-education group.Conclusions: This paper explains the gender gap in health insurance and the reason for the wider gap among older people. Our study indicates that because the UEBMI in China mainly covers people with formal jobs, a lower labor participation rate (even much lower in formal jobs) of women has led to their greater difficulty in obtaining health insurance. Since the older women’s greater difficulty in obtaining jobs or susceptibility to lay-offs during the period of the UEBMI’s implementation, the possibility of being covered was even much lower. In fact, it was because of the combined effects of the UEBMI system and the labor market condition at that time that older women had a lower proportion of being covered under the UEBMI.

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Gender Differences in Health Insurance Coverage in China

10.21203/rs.3.rs-55996/v2 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Mei Zhou ◽

Shaoyang Zhao ◽

Zhi Zhao

Keyword(s):

Gender Differences ◽

Health Insurance ◽

Gender Gap ◽

Insurance Coverage ◽

Age Groups ◽

Participation Rate ◽

Health Insurance Coverage ◽

Market Condition ◽

Large Sample ◽

Education Group

Abstract Background: China initiated a reform of the health insurance system in the late 1990s. The new insurance, urban Employee basic medical insurance (UEBMI), is employment-based, which makes it more difficult than it used to be for those unemployed or informal employed (most of whom are women) to be covered by health insurance. Methods: based on three large sample of micro datasets, we first use statistical methods to identify gender differences in health insurance. Next, we construct a logistic regression model to capture the differences in insurance coverage across age groups using the parameter of interaction terms for gender and age groups.Results: Based on data from a demographic survey that covers a large sample, we find that in the below 50 (in 2005) or 60 (in 2015) years age group, the coverage gap of UEBMI between men and women was relatively smaller, while a larger disparity existed in the above 50 (in 2005) or 60 (in 2015) group. Moreover, gender differences in health insurance were more significant in the low-education group, while no gender differences were found in the high-education group.Conclusions: This paper explains the gender gap in health insurance and the reason for the wider gap among older people. Our study indicates that because the UEBMI in China mainly covers people with formal jobs, a lower labor participation rate (even much lower in formal jobs) of women has led to their greater difficulty in obtaining health insurance. Since the older women’s greater difficulty in obtaining jobs or susceptibility to lay-offs during the period of the UEBMI’s implementation, the possibility of being covered was even much lower. In fact, it was because of the combined effects of the UEBMI system and the labor market condition at that time that older women had a lower proportion of being covered under the UEBMI.

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Gender differences in health insurance coverage in China

International Journal for Equity in Health ◽

10.1186/s12939-021-01383-9 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Mei Zhou ◽

Shaoyang Zhao ◽

Zhi Zhao

Keyword(s):

Gender Differences ◽

Health Insurance ◽

Gender Gap ◽

Insurance Coverage ◽

Age Groups ◽

Participation Rate ◽

Health Insurance Coverage ◽

Market Condition ◽

Large Sample ◽

Education Group

Abstract Background China initiated a reform of the health insurance system in the late 1990s. The new insurance, Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance (UEBMI), is employment-based, which makes it more difficult than it used to be for those unemployed or informal employed (most of whom are women) to be covered by health insurance. Methods Based on three large sample of micro datasets, we first use statistical methods to identify gender differences in health insurance. Next, we construct a logistic regression model to capture the differences in insurance coverage across age groups using the parameter of interaction terms for gender and age groups. Results Based on data from a demographic survey that covers a large sample, we find that in the below 50 (in 2005) or 60 (in 2015) years age group, the coverage gap of UEBMI between men and women was relatively smaller, while a larger disparity existed in the above 50 (in 2005) or 60 (in 2015) group. Moreover, gender differences in health insurance were more significant in the low-education group, while no gender differences were found in the high-education group. Conclusions This paper explains the gender gap in health insurance and the reason for the wider gap among older people. Our study indicates that because the UEBMI in China mainly covers people with formal jobs, a lower labor participation rate (even much lower in formal jobs) of women has led to their greater difficulty in obtaining health insurance. Since the older women’s greater difficulty in obtaining jobs or susceptibility to lay-offs during the period of the UEBMI’s implementation, the possibility of being covered was even much lower. In fact, it was because of the combined effects of the UEBMI system and the labor market condition at that time that older women had a lower proportion of being covered under the UEBMI.

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