Informal payments for health care are common in most former communist countries. This article explores the demand side of these payments in Albania. Using tobit and Heckman selection models we control for individual determinants of informal payments in outpatient and inpatient health care....

As part of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) single technology appraisal (STA) process, the Evidence Review Group (ERG) produced a report to comment on the clinical and cost effectiveness of golimumab (Simponi<Superscript>®</Superscript>, Merck Sharp & Dohme) for the treatment of ankylosing...</superscript>

Social networks of family and friends are very important in providing economic and social support to households. The massive internal migration flows towards the big cities in the transition countries like Albania can seriously affect such networks, and influence the support received. Previous...

Background: A major problem in cost-effectiveness studies is where to draw the line between interventions which are cost-effective and those who are not. Lacking a notion about the value of a QALY, all ultimate values to the cost-effectiveness ratio are essentially arbitrary. Methods: This paper...

This paper introduces a new method to calculate the extent to which individuals are willing to trade money for improvements in their health status. An individual welfare function of income (WFI) is applied to calculate the compensating income variation of health impairments. We believe that this...

Background Little is known about the costs of community programmes to prevent cardiovascular diseases. The present study calculated the economic costs of all interventions within a Dutch community programme called Hartslag Limburg, in such a way as to facilitate generalisation to other...

Objective: The optimal timing of interventions during sickness absence remains difficult to determine, because we do not have a clear picture of the presence and type of duration dependence that exists. This study investigates the impact of an intervention by the occupational physician as well...

Objective To examine the use of community-based social services by elderly people at risk of institutionalization, who prefer to remain at home.Methods A study with a longitudinal design (measurements at two points in time) was conducted.Results One hundred and thirty-four elderly people (mean...