Innovation in Evaluating the Impact of Integrated Service-Delivery: The Integra Indexes of HIV and Reproductive Health Integration.

Background: The body of knowledge on evaluating complex interventions for integrated healthcare lacks both common definitions of 'integrated service delivery' and standard measures of impact. Using multiple data sources in combination with statistical modelling the aim of this study is to develop a measure of HIV-reproductive health (HIV-RH) service integration that can be used to assess the degree of service integration, and the degree to which integration may have health benefits to clients, or reduce service costs.

Methods And Findings: Data were drawn from the Integra Initiative's client flow (8,263 clients in Swaziland and 25,539 in Kenya) and costing tools implemented between 2008-2012 in 40 clinics providing RH services in Kenya and Swaziland.

Institutional delivery in rural India: the relative importance of accessibility and economic status.

Background: Skilled attendance at delivery is an important indicator in monitoring progress towards Millennium Development Goal 5 to reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters between 1990 and 2015. In addition to professional attention, it is important that mothers deliver their babies in an appropriate setting, where life saving equipment and hygienic conditions can also help reduce the risk of complications that may cause death or illness to mother and child. Over the past decade interest has grown in examining influences on care-seeking behavior and this study investigates the determinants of place of delivery in rural India, with a particular focus on assessing the relative importance of community access and economic status.

An estimate of the veteran population in England: based on data from the 2007 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey.

Background: The health and well-being of military veterans has recently generated much media and political interest. Estimating the current and future size of the veteran population is important to the planning and allocation of veteran support services.

Methods: Data from a 2007 nationally representative residential survey of England (the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey) were extrapolated to the whole population to estimate the number of veterans currently residing in private households in England.

Long-term survival of intensive care and hospital patient cohorts compared with the general Australian population: a relative survival approach.

Rationale: Long-term post-hospital survival of intensive care cohorts has been poorly characterized. The relative survival of septic and non-septic intensive care and general hospital patient cohorts, compared with the Australian population, was determined.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study in a tertiary-level adult intensive care.

Fertility in Kenya and Uganda: a comparative study of trends and determinants.

Between 1980 and 2000 total fertility in Kenya fell by about 40 per cent, from some eight births per woman to around five. During the same period, fertility in Uganda declined by less than 10 per cent. An analysis of the proximate determinants shows that the difference was due primarily to greater contraceptive use in Kenya, though in Uganda there was also a reduction in pathological sterility.

Regression models for relative survival.

Four approaches to estimating a regression model for relative survival using the method of maximum likelihood are described and compared. The underlying model is an additive hazards model where the total hazard is written as the sum of the known baseline hazard and the excess hazard associated with a diagnosis of cancer. The excess hazards are assumed to be constant within pre-specified bands of follow-up.

Health inequalities in the older population: the role of personal capital, social resources and socio-economic circumstances.

Older people now constitute the majority of those with health problems in developed countries so an understanding of health variations in later life is increasingly important. In this paper, we use data from three rounds of the Health Survey for England, a large nationally representative sample, to analyse variations in the health of adults aged 65-84 by indicators of attributes acquired in childhood and young adulthood, termed personal capital; and by current social resources and current socio-economic circumstances, while controlling for smoking behaviour and age. We used six indicators of health status in the analysis, four based on self-reports and two based on nurse collected data, which we hypothesised would identify different dimensions of health.