Publications by authors named "Rudoler D"

We explored the relationship between neighbourhood and social participation among older adults using a Living Environments and Active Aging Framework. This prospective cohort study used baseline data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) with a 3-year follow-up. Three aspects of social participation were the outcomes; walkability and greenness at baseline were exposure variables.

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Objective: In response to high demand and prolonged wait times for cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in Ontario, Canada, we developed predictive models to stratify patients into high- or low-intensity treatment, aiming to optimize limited healthcare resources.

Method: Using client records ( = 953) from Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences (January 2017-2021), we estimated four binary outcome models to assign patients into complex and standard cases based on the probability of reliable improvement in Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) scores. We evaluated two choices of cut-offs for patient complexity assignment: models at an ROC (receiver operating characteristic)-derived cut-off and a 0.

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Background: As the demand for mental health and substance use (MHSU) services increases, there will be an even greater need for health human resources to deliver this care. This study investigates how family physicians' (FP) contact volume, and more specifically, MHSU contact volume, is shaped by demographic trends among FPs in British Columbia, Canada.

Methods: We used annual physician-level administrative billing data and demographic information on FPs in British Columbia between 1996 and 2017.

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Background: Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is one of the most successful therapeutic approaches for treating anxiety and depression. Clinical trials show that for some clients, internet-based CBT (eCBT) is as effective as other CBT delivery modes. However, the fidelity of these effects may be weakened in real-world settings where clients and providers have the freedom to choose a CBT delivery mode and switch treatments at any time.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study examines how the long-term relationship between family physicians and older patients affects follow-up care after starting antidepressants, as side effects can occur quickly while benefits take longer to be felt.
  • - Researchers analyzed data from Ontario, focusing on patients aged 66 and older who received their first antidepressant prescription between 2016 and 2019, using regression analysis to explore the relationship between continuity of care and 30-day follow-up.
  • - Results showed a slight positive link between relational continuity and follow-up care, especially in non-major urban and rural areas, though the evidence for improved management of antidepressants remains weak overall.
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Waitlists for long-term care (LTC) continue to grow, and it is anticipated aging populations will generate additional demand. While literature focuses on individual-level factors, little is known about system-level factors contributing to LTC waitlists. We considered these factors through a scoping review.

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Article Synopsis
  • Equitable access to primary care is crucial for improving health outcomes, but marginalized groups in Canada have not significantly benefited from recent primary care reforms.
  • The study examined primary care policy documents from 2018 to mid-2022 to see how well they addressed equity issues, revealing that only a small fraction of these documents had strong responses to the needs of marginalized populations.
  • Overall, many policies recognized existing inequities but lacked measurable goals, proper community involvement, and substantial action, contributing to ongoing disparities in primary care access.
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Objective: To evaluate if access to team-based primary care is related to medication management outcomes for older adults.

Methods: We completed two retrospective cohort studies using administrative health data for older adults (66+) in Ontario (n = 428,852) and Québec (n = 310,198) who were rostered with a family physician (FP) between the 2001/02 and 2017/18 fiscal years. We generated matched comparison groups of older adults rostered to an FP practicing in a team-based model, and older adults rostered to an FP in a non-team model.

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Background: Comprehensiveness of primary care has been declining, and much of the blame has been placed on early-career family physicians and their practice choices. To better understand early-career family physicians' practice choices in Canada, we sought to identify the factors that most influence their decisions about how to practice.

Methods: We conducted a qualitative study using framework analysis.

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Background: In Canada, family physicians (FPs) per capita have increased but so have access challenges. We explored changes in population characteristics, service delivery and FP practice that may help understand these trends.

Methods: We used linked administrative data in British Columbia to describe changes in patient ages and comorbidities, hospitalizations and receipt of services that may require FP coordination, review and/or follow-up: prescriptions dispensed, laboratory tests, diagnostic imaging (radiology and ultrasound), specialist visits and emergency department visits.

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Introduction: Privatisation through the expansion of private payment and investor-owned corporate healthcare delivery in Canada raises potential conflicts with equity principles on which Medicare (Canadian public health insurance) is founded. Some cases of privatisation are widely recognised, while others are evolving and more hidden, and their extent differs across provinces and territories likely due in part to variability in policies governing private payment (out-of-pocket payments and private insurance) and delivery.

Methods And Analysis: This pan-Canadian knowledge mobilisation project will collect, classify, analyse and interpret data about investor-owned privatisation of healthcare financing and delivery systems in Canada.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aims to analyze changes in the range of services provided by family physicians in four Canadian provinces, focusing on which areas and settings experienced the most significant changes.
  • Using billing data linked to physician registries, the research evaluates service comprehensiveness over two fiscal years (1999-2000 and 2017-2018) across various medical settings and service areas.
  • Results indicate a decline in service comprehensiveness across all provinces, with the most significant reductions occurring in specific service settings, especially among seasoned male physicians practicing in urban environments.
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Introduction: The Canadian population has poor and inequitable access to psychiatric care despite a steady per-capita supply of psychiatrists in most provinces. There is some quantitative evidence that practice style and characteristics vary substantially among psychiatrists. However, how this compares across jurisdictions and implications for workforce planning require further study.

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Canadian provinces and territories have undertaken varied reforms to how primary care is funded, organized, and delivered, but equity impacts of reforms are unclear. We explore disparities in access to primary care by income, educational attainment, dwelling ownership, immigration, racialization, place of residence (metropolitan/non-metropolitan), and sex/gender, and how these have changed over time, using data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (2007/08 and 2015/16 or 2017/18). We observe disparities by income, educational attainment, dwelling ownership, recent immigration, immigration (regular place of care), racialization (regular place of care), and sex/gender.

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Aim: The purpose of this analysis was to report the prevalence of falls and falls-related injuries among those reporting different volumes of weekly sedentary time, and to understand the association of sedentary time and falls, accounting for functional fitness.

Methods: Baseline and first follow-up data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CSLA) were analyzed (n=22,942). Participants self-reported whether they had a fall in the past 12 months (at baseline) and whether they had an injury that was a result of a fall (follow-up).

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We describe changes in the comprehensiveness of services delivered by family physicians in 4 Canadian provinces (British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia) during the periods 1999-2000 and 2017-2018 and explore if changes differ by years in practice. We measured comprehensiveness using province-wide billing data across 7 settings (home, long-term care, emergency department, hospital, obstetrics, surgical assistance, anesthesiology) and 7 service areas (pre/postnatal care, Papanicolaou [Pap] testing, mental health, substance use, cancer care, minor surgery, palliative home visits). Comprehensiveness declined in all provinces, with greater changes in number of service settings than service areas.

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Background: Team-based primary care reforms aim to improve care coordination by involving multiple interdisciplinary health professionals in patient care. Team-based primary care may support improved medication management for older adults with polypharmacy and multiple points of contact with the healthcare system. However, little is known about this association.

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Objectives: To determine whether a voluntary referral-based interprofessional team-based primary care programme reached its target population and to assess the representativeness of referring primary care physicians.

Design: Cross-sectional analysis of administrative health data.

Setting: Ontario, Canada.

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Background: Lack of patient access to family physicians in Canada is a concern. The role of recent physician graduates in this problem of supply of primary care services has not been established. We sought to establish whether career stage or graduation cohort were related to family physician practice volume and continuity of care over time.

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The purpose of this analysis was to determine whether older Canadians residing in neighborhoods characterized by denser greenness or higher walkability have better self-reported health outcomes at 3-year follow-up. Data on self-reported chronic diseases (composite score of 10 conditions) and self-rated measures of health (general health, mental health, and healthy aging) from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) were used as outcomes. The CLSA database was linked with the Canadian Active Living Environments (Can-ALE), a measure of walkability, and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), a measure of greenness.

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Introduction: People with serious mental illness (SMI) have poor health outcomes, in part because of inequitable access to quality health services. Primary care is well suited to coordinate and manage care for this population; however, providers may feel ill-equipped to do so and patients may not have the support and resources required to coordinate their care. We lack a strong understanding of prevention and management of chronic disease in primary care among people with SMI as well as the context-specific barriers that exist at the patient, provider and system levels.

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Background: Strong primary care systems have been associated with improved health equity. Primary care system reforms in Canada may have had equity implications, but these have not been evaluated. We sought to determine if changes in primary care service use between 1999/2000 and 2017/2018 differ by neighbourhood income in British Columbia.

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