Suchergebnisse

Developing country health systems are characterized by underfunded health care provision, distorted priorities in resource allocation, weak governance and regulatory structures, sub-optimal policy interventions. The central approach of the reforms has been two-fold: increasing efficiency in resource use and serve equity by excluding the high income groups and include only the poor in all publicity funded actions. The study tries to understand the existing system of means testing in public hospitals in Kerala, India by enquiring on the nature and institutional frame work for means testing as well as the characteristics of the major criteria used to assess means testing. The motivation behind the proposed study comes from the fact out-of pocket at the point of delivery of care for health care problems prove to be a strong barrier to effective utilization of health care, especially by the resource poor. For the purpose of study, means testing has been defined as 'the criteria, methods and processes involved in classifying them in different gradients of economic and social purchasing power'. The study selected five major public hospitals in Kerala from three districts under Central (Federal) and State (provincial) government ownerships. All institutions have a defined user fee policy suggesting user fees as essential in tertiary care as it increases the compliance of medicines, makes the patients and providers responsible for the use/misuse, ensuring economic sustainability are the major reasons for supporting user fees. All the institutions have a graded pricing system with multiple layers except in provincial government run institutions where only two categories exist while some institutions have five categories. Institutions under the administrative control of the State (provincial) government of Kerala use possession of BPL cards as the sole criterion for categorization with BPL card holders get fully free care compared to full payment by the APL card holders. Despite the fact that these institutions have a declared policy of no patient would be denied of treatment due to inability to pay remains a questionable assurance.

Data from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health were used to examine a model of the ways in which neighborhood structural characteristics and social processes (NSCSP) impact children's (age = 6–11; <em>N</em> = 27,752) and adolescents' (age = 12–17; <em>N</em> = 36,233) social adjustment and school engagement via parenting and family processes (i.e., parent–child interactions).The questions investigated were: how are distinct aspects of NSCSP associated with parental stress and well-being, and with youth social adjustment and school engagement? Are parental stress and well-being linked with family processes, and are family processes predictive of youth social adjustment and school engagement? Finally, does age moderate the associations linking NSCSP to developmental outcomes via parenting stress and well-being and family processes? Results from a multigroup structural equation model supported the general nature of hypothesized relationships: distinct aspects of NSCSP were differentially predictive of children and adolescents' social adjustment and school engagement. Furthermore, the direct effects of NSCSP were mediated (some partially and others completely) by parenting stress and well-being and family processes. Finally, age moderated the effects of social cohesion on both social adjustment and school engagement; as well, age moderated the effects of parenting stress and well-being on family processes, and on the effects of family processes on social adjustment and school engagement.

A multigroup structural equation model was used to investigate the processes underlying health care use between Black and White children. Data from the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH), a computer-assisted telephone survey, were used. The sample for this research consisted of 28,064 Black and White children, ages 4 to 11 years, drawn from the larger pool of children whose families participated in the survey. Results showed that the processes underlying health care use were similar for Blacks and Whites; however, there were some differences in factor loadings between Blacks and Whites. Furthermore, there were differences between Blacks and Whites in the effects of (a) family economic resources on health problems, (b) health problems and access to care on parental distress, and (c) access to care and health problems on prevention- and curative-based use. No interaction effects were found for Blacks and Whites in the associations between (a) parental distress, and satisfaction with physician interaction and health care usage, and (b) satisfaction with physician interactions and health care utilization.

In his later writings, Bronfenbrenner revised his ecological theory, resulting in the bioecological model that gave prominence to proximal processes and the relationship between the context and individual characteristics. Drawing on the bioecological model, we hypothesized that (a) contextual influences will be mediated by proximal processes, (b) proximal processes will have a more powerful impact on children's development than contextual factors, and (c) the effect of contextual and proximal processes will vary as a function of child characteristic and developmental outcome. Data used were from a sample of 28,064 six- to eleven-year-olds in the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health. A multigroup structural equation model that employed a process-person-context research design was used to analyze the data. In general, support was found for the meditational hypothesis and the hypothesis that the impact of contextual factors and proximal processes varies as a function of person and the developmental outcome. Partial support was found for the hypothesis that proximal processes exert a more powerful effect on development than contextual factors.

The forestry sector in Tanzania has been underutilized in promoting national development. The government owns large timber plantations that have not been fully harvested due, in part, to a lack of processing capacity. In the early 1980s, the Tanzanian government introduced five mobile sawmills to utilize the surplus of small-dimension timber from its overstocked plantations. These mobile sawmills have proven themselves to be both financially and economically profitable in Tanzania's unstable economy. A financial and economic evaluation of the mobile sawmilling industry in Tanzania was undertaken to evaluate the factors that influence the profitability of the industry. Data was collected on the costs and revenues of the sawmills since their operation was initiated

Citation: Koppel, K., Higa, F., Godwin, S., Gutierrez, N., Shalimov, R., Cardinal, P., . . . Chambers, E. (2016). Food Leftover Practices among Consumers in Selected Countries in Europe, South and North America. Foods, 5(3), 14. doi:10.3390/foods5030066 ; Foodborne illnesses may be related to many food production factors with home practices of consumers playing an important role in food safety. Consumer behavior for handling food leftovers has been studied, however little work on comparisons among countries has been published. The objective of this study was to investigate home food leftover practices of people from North American, South American, and European countries. Surveys were conducted with approximately 100 or more consumers in Argentina, Colombia, the United States, Estonia, Italy, Russia, and Spain. The participants responded to questions related to the length of time different types of food leftovers; such as meat, fresh salads, or restaurant dishes would be kept refrigerated or would be left at room temperature before refrigeration. Researchers also investigated how consumers would determine if the food was still safe for consumption. Potentially risky behaviors were observed in all seven countries. For instance, 55.8% of Estonians, 25% of Russians and 25.8% of Argentinean participants left food out at room temperature for several hours before storing in the refrigerator. Furthermore, 25%-29% of Colombian, Estonian, and Spanish consumers would look, smell, and taste leftovers to determine its probable safety. Correct handling of leftovers is an important aspect of consumer food safety. Although the surveys cannot be representative of all consumers in each country, they do provide an initial overview of comparative practices for handling leftovers among different countries. This provides government and educators with information on potential universal and unique consumer food safety issues related to handling leftover foods among various countries.