Policy changes and the screening, diagnosis and treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis patients from 2015 to 2018 in Zhejiang Province, China: a retrospective cohort study.

Objectives: To examine changes in the screening, diagnosis, treatment and management of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DRTB) patients, and investigate the impacts of DRTB-related policies on patients of different demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.

Design: A retrospective cohort study using registry data, plus a survey on DRTB-related policies.

Setting: All prefecture-level Centres for Disease Control in Zhejiang Province, China.

Impact of the community healthcare plan and the free maternity services programme on maternal and child healthcare utilisation in rural Kenya: a dairy farmer population-based study.

Background: Access to and utilisation of quality maternal and child healthcare services is generally recognized as the best way to reduce maternal and child mortality.

Objectives: We evaluated whether the introduction of a voluntary family health insurance programme, combined with quality improvement of healthcare facilities [The Community Health Plan (TCHP)], and the introduction of free access to delivery services in all public facilities [Free Maternity Services programme (FMS)] increased antenatal care utilisation and use of facility deliveries among pregnant women in rural Kenya.

Methods: TCHP was introduced in 2011, whilst the FMS programme was launched in 2013.

Inequity in healthcare needs, health service use and financial burden of medical expenditures in China: results from a consecutive household monitoring study in Jiangsu Province.

Background: Although public medical insurance covers over 95% of the population in China, disparities in health service use and out-of-pocket (OOP) health expenditure across income groups are still widely observed. This study aims to investigate the socio-economic disparities in perceived healthcare needs, informal care, formal care and payment for healthcare and explore their equity implication.

Methods: We assessed healthcare needs, service use and payment in 400 households in rural and urban areas in Jiangsu, China, and included only the adult sample (N = 925).

Effects of Early Retirement Policy Changes on Working until Retirement: Natural Experiment.

Many European countries have implemented pension reforms to increase the statutory retirement age with the aim of increasing labor supply. However, not all older workers may be able or want to work to a very high age. Using a nation-wide register data of labor market transitions, we investigated in this natural experiment the effect of an unexpected change in the Dutch pension system on labor market behaviors of older workers.

Impact of an innovative financing and payment model on tuberculosis patients' financial burden: is tuberculosis care more affordable for the poor?

Background: In response to the high financial burden of health services facing tuberculosis (TB) patients in China, the China-Gates TB project, Phase II, has implemented a new financing and payment model as an important component of the overall project in three cities in eastern, central and western China. The model focuses on increasing the reimbursement rate for TB patients and reforming provider payment methods by replacing fee-for-service with a case-based payment approach. This study investigated changes in out-of-pocket (OOP) health expenditure and the financial burden on TB patients before and after the interventions, with a focus on potential differential impacts on patients from different income groups.

Predicting working beyond retirement in the Netherlands: an interdisciplinary approach involving occupational epidemiology and economics.

Objectives No study so far has combined register-based socioeconomic information with self-reported information on health, demographics, work characteristics, and the social environment. The aim of this study was to investigate whether socioeconomic, health, demographic, work characteristics and social environmental characteristics independently predict working beyond retirement. Methods Questionnaire data from the Study on Transitions in Employment, Ability and Motivation were linked to data from Statistics Netherlands.