The burden of chronic disease on health care services worldwide is growing and the increased development of educational interventions which help patients to better manage their conditions is evident internationally. It has been recognized that poor adherence can be a serious risk to the health and wellbeing of patients. Adherence to fluid…

Purpose: The evaluation of training results in large groups with limited resources is one of the challenges of organisations. This paper aims to provide a methodological approach to facilitate evaluation of training among large groups. The paper presents the tools and the results of an evaluation of a whole training plan on the rational use of…

Purpose: Primary mental health workers have been based in West Lothian schools since 2003 to act as links between the community and hospital-based services. The research programme this paper describes aimed to examine how this model worked and its impact for children and their families. Design/methodology/approach: This paper reports on interviews…

The purpose of this study was to determine the status of the health appraisal services provided for primary school children in Edo State, Nigeria. Using the cross-sectional survey design a total of 1506 primary school children were selected from across the state as the study participants. The analysis of data collected through a 14-item…

A randomized controlled intervention tested the effectiveness of a community health worker (CHW) program in increasing compliance with annual preventive exams among uninsured Hispanic women living in a rural U.S.-Mexico border area. During 1999-2000, household surveys were administered to women aged 40 and older. Uninsured women not receiving…

This article reports on the conduct and results of a randomised controlled trial to test the effectiveness of a teacher-led intervention to improve teenagers' knowledge of emergency contraception. The trial was successfully conducted in 24 mixed-sex state secondary schools in Avon, South-west England. The intervention was popular with both…

Physicians have acknowledged information technology (IT) efficiency and now utilize it in their professional practice and patient management. The benefits of IT within the health care environment has received academic attention, however existing literature currently pertains to limited areas, including the financial effects of telemedicine…

The Working Together (WT) project involved the design and delivery of an online learning resource for healthcare teams in long-term care (LTC) so that knowledge regarding interprofessional collaborative patient-centred practice (ICPCP) could be readily accessed and then transferred to the workplace. The purpose of this paper is to better…

Context: An experimental Health Care Improvement Program (HCIP) was initiated by the Bureau of National Health Insurance in 1997 to improve the accessibility of health care in several rural, mountainous districts. Purpose: This longitudinal study evaluated service availability, utilization patterns, and effectiveness of services under the HCIP in…

Underperformance among physicians is not well studied or defined; yet, the identification and remediation of physicians who are not performing up to acceptable standards is central to quality care and patient safety. Methods for estimating the prevalence of dyscompetence include evaluating available data on medical errors, malpractice claims,…

Breast cancer incidence in Pakistan is the highest reported in any South-Central Asian country. It is the most frequent malignancy in women, where it accounts for 38.5% of all female cancers. About half (43.7%) of all breast cancers are locally advanced. We recruited 183 primary care physicians in Pakistan and invited them to attend educational…

The theme of this serial issue is helping individuals involved in community health programs at the local level to devise and apply a protocol for the evaluation of a community health program. In the opening sections of the issue evaluation is defined, the difference between a direct quantifying measure and an indicator is clarified, obstacles to…

For five years, a University of Brighton (England) social policy and administration program has incorporated a student research project into a required research methods course. The sponsored research project places considerable emphasis on student contributions to the research. These features are discussed in the context of one project, a patient…

The reasons a skill mix among health workers is important to health care systems were examined. The analysis was based on a review of studies conducted primarily in the United States. "Skill mix" was defined as the mix of posts, grades, or occupations in an organization and the combinations of activities or skills needed for each job…