Process modularity, supply chain responsiveness, and moderators: The Médecins Sans Frontières response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The unprecedented scale of the Covid-19 pandemic has been a challenge for health supply chains around the world. Many international humanitarian organizations have had to ensure the continuity of their already complex development programs, while addressing their supply chain disruptions linked to the pandemic. Process modularity has frequently been advocated as a strategy to mitigate such disruptions, although empirical evidence regarding its impact on supply chain responsiveness and what moderates this impact is scarce.

Perceived determinants of physical activity among women with prior severe preeclampsia: a qualitative assessment.

Background: The objective of this study was to (1) qualitatively identify the perceived determinants of physical activity among women who have experienced severe preeclampsia, and (2) examine whether these determinants are consistent with the overarching processes outlined in the integrated behavior change (IBC) model, a novel model that describes physical activity as being a result of motivational, volitional, and automatic processes.

Methods: Patients (n = 35) of the Follow-Up PreEClampsia (FUPEC) Outpatient Clinic, Erasmus MC, the Netherlands, participated in an anonymous online survey. The main outcomes under study were their perceived determinants of physical activity.

The Impact of the Universal Infant Free School Meal Policy on Dietary Quality in English and Scottish Primary School Children: Evaluation of a Natural Experiment.

The Universal Infant Free School Meal (UIFSM) policy was introduced in September 2014 in England and January 2015 in Scotland and offered all infant schoolchildren (ages 4-7 years) a free school lunch, regardless of income. Yet, impacts of UIFSM on dietary intakes or social inequalities are not known. A difference-in-differences study using the National Diet and Nutrition Survey assessed pooled pre-UIFSM (2010-2014) and post-UIFSM (2014-2017) dietary data.

Implementation of coverage with evidence development schemes for medical devices: A decision tool for late technology adopter countries.

Experiences with coverage with evidence development (CED) schemes are fairly limited in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, which are usually late adopters of new health technologies. Our aim was to put forward recommendations on how CEE health technology assessment bodies and payer organizations can apply CED to reduce decision uncertainty on reimbursement of medical devices, with a particular focus on transferring the structure and data from CED schemes in early technology adopter countries in Western Europe. Structured interviews on the practices and feasibility of transferring CED schemes were conducted and subsequently, a draft tool for the systematic classification of decision alternatives and recommendations was developed.

The health impact of free access to antiretroviral therapy in South Africa.

Since 2004 the South African government has rolled out free antiretroviral therapy (ART) at public health care facilities nationwide. No prior studies have estimated the impact of the ART rollout on health and survival using a longitudinal household survey with national coverage. We match household member deaths and self-assessed health from a large national longitudinal survey to community-level ART availability in clinics to estimate the reduction in mortality and morbidity attributable to ART availability between 2006 and 2016, using a difference-in-difference model.

Applying Mendelian randomization to appraise causality in relationships between nutrition and cancer.

Dietary factors are assumed to play an important role in cancer risk, apparent in consensus recommendations for cancer prevention that promote nutritional changes. However, the evidence in this field has been generated predominantly through observational studies, which may result in biased effect estimates because of confounding, exposure misclassification, and reverse causality. With major geographical differences and rapid changes in cancer incidence over time, it is crucial to establish which of the observational associations reflect causality and to identify novel risk factors as these may be modified to prevent the onset of cancer and reduce its progression.

Coverage with evidence development for medical devices in Europe: Can practice meet theory?

Health economists have written extensively on the design and implementation of coverage with evidence development (CED) schemes and have proposed theoretical frameworks based on cost-effectiveness modeling and value of information analysis. CED may aid decision-makers when there is uncertainty about the (cost-)effectiveness of a new health technology at the time of reimbursement. Medical devices are potential candidates for CED schemes, as regulatory regimes do not usually require the same level of efficacy and safety data normally needed for pharmaceuticals.

The QALY at 50: One story many voices.

Research on quality adjusted life year (QALY) has been underway for just over 50 years, which seems like a suitable milestone to review its history. The purpose of this study is to provide a historical overview of why the QALY was developed, the key theoretical work undertaken by Torrance, Bush and Fanshel and how two seminal papers shaped its subsequent development. Moving the QALY forward - there are several historical and reflective exercises.

Patient cost-sharing, mental health care and inequalities: A population-based natural experiment at the transition to adulthood.

Background: Patient cost-sharing has been increasing around the world, despite the evidence that it reduces both unnecessary and necessary health care utilisation. Financial barriers could compound to poor transitional care into adulthood, when forgoing mental health treatment may have long-term consequences on health and development. We evaluate the impact of increasing deductibles on mental health care use by young adults, and the heterogeneous effects for vulnerable groups.

Education, Dietary Intakes and Exercise.

This paper examines the relationship between education and health behaviours, focusing on potential offsetting responses between calories (i.e. dietary intakes) and calories (i.

Trump's COVID-19 tweets and Dr. Fauci's emails.

The paper features an analysis of former President Trump's early tweets on COVID-19 in the context of Dr. Fauci's recently revealed email trove. The tweets are analysed using various data mining techniques, including sentiment analysis.

Missed opportunities for hypertension screening: a cross-sectional study, India.

Objective: To assess missed opportunities for hypertension screening at health facilities in India and describe systematic differences in these missed opportunities across states and sociodemographic groups.

Methods: We used nationally representative survey data from the 2017-2018 Longitudinal Ageing Study in India to estimate the proportion of adults aged 45 years or older identified with hypertension and who had not been diagnosed with hypertension despite having visited a health facility during the previous 12 months. We estimated age-sex adjusted proportions of missed opportunities to diagnose hypertension, as well as actual and potential proportions of diagnosis, by sociodemographic characteristics and for each state.

Moving from intention to behaviour: a randomised controlled trial protocol for an app-based physical activity intervention (i2be).

Introduction: Efficacy tests of physical activity interventions indicate that many have limited or short-term efficacy, principally because they do not sufficiently build on theory-based processes that determine behaviour. The current study aims to address this limitation.

Methods And Analysis: The efficacy of the 8-week intervention will be tested using a three-condition randomised controlled trial delivered through an app, in women with a prior hypertensive pregnancy disorder.

Persistent effects of temporary incentives: Evidence from a nationwide health insurance experiment.

Temporary incentives are offered in anticipation of persistent effects that are seldom estimated. We use a nationwide randomized experiment in the Philippines to estimate effects of two incentives for health insurance three years after their withdrawal. We find that both temporary incentives had persistent effects on enrollment.

Automatic classification of takeaway food outlet cuisine type using machine (deep) learning.

Background And Purpose: Researchers have not disaggregated neighbourhood exposure to takeaway ('fast-') food outlets by cuisine type sold, which would otherwise permit examination of differential impacts on diet, obesity and related disease. This is partly due to the substantial resource challenge of manual classification of unclassified takeaway outlets at scale. We describe the development of a new model to automatically classify takeaway food outlets, by 10 major cuisine types, based on business name alone.

COVID-19 and the global venture capital landscape.

We assess the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on venture capital (VC) investments, documenting a significant decline in investments using a dataset of 39,527 funding rounds occurring before and during the pandemic in 130 countries. In line with our theoretical considerations, we show that this decline is more pronounced for investments characterized by higher uncertainty, namely investments in seed-stage ventures, industries affected more heavily by the COVID-19 crisis, international investments, and non-syndicated investments. Investor prominence partially moderates these effects.

Economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on entrepreneurship and small businesses.

The existential threat to small businesses, based on their crucial role in the economy, is behind the plethora of scholarly studies in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Examining the 15 contributions of the special issue on the "Economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on entrepreneurship and small businesses," the paper comprises four parts: a systematic review of the literature on the effect on entrepreneurship and small businesses; a discussion of four literature strands based on this review; an overview of the contributions in this special issue; and some ideas for post-pandemic economic research.

Risk of burnout in French entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 crisis.

Abstract: The COVID-19 crisis presents manifest threats for entrepreneurs since their business survival is often directly at stake given the alarming economic downturn. This existential threat, together with their crucial role in the economy, is the reason for the plethora of public financial support schemes being implemented throughout the entire world. However, support schemes for mental health are lacking.

The determinants of bootstrap financing in crises: evidence from entrepreneurial ventures in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bootstrap financing refers to measures that entrepreneurial ventures undertake to preserve liquidity (e.g., reducing expenses, collecting receivables, delaying payments, preselling).

Improving maternal and child health in Pakistan: a programme evaluation using a difference in difference analysis.

Introduction: Pakistan is a country with high maternal and infant mortality. Several large foreign funded projects were targeted at improving maternal, neonatal and child health. The Norway-Pakistan Partnership Initiative (NPPI) was one of these projects.

To what extent do citizens support the disinvestment of healthcare interventions? An exploration of the support for four viewpoints on active disinvestment in the Netherlands.

Background: Active disinvestment of healthcare interventions (i.e. discontinuing reimbursement by means of a policy decision) has received limited public support in the past.

A Personal Model of Trumpery: Linguistic Deception Detection in a Real-World High-Stakes Setting.

Language use differs between truthful and deceptive statements, but not all differences are consistent across people and contexts, complicating the identification of deceit in individuals. By relying on fact-checked tweets, we showed in three studies (Study 1: 469 tweets; Study 2: 484 tweets; Study 3: 24 models) how well personalized linguistic deception detection performs by developing the first deception model tailored to an individual: the 45th U.S.

Prevalence and inequality in persistent undiagnosed, untreated, and uncontrolled hypertension: Evidence from a cohort of older Mexicans.

Hypertension is the leading risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and substantial gaps in diagnosis, treatment and control signal failure to avert premature deaths. Our aim was to estimate the prevalence and assess the socioeconomic distribution of hypertension that remained undiagnosed, untreated, and uncontrolled for at least five years among older Mexicans and to estimate rates of transition from those states to diagnosis, treatment and control. We used data from a cohort of Mexicans aged 50+ in two waves of the WHO Study on Global AGEing and adult health (SAGE) collected in 2009 and 2014.

Insurance decisions under nonperformance risk and ambiguity.

Unlabelled: An important societal problem is that people underinsure against risks that are unlikely or occur in the far future, such as natural disasters and long-term care needs. One explanation is that uncertainty about the risk of non-reimbursement induces ambiguity averse and risk prudent decision makers to take out less insurance. We set up an insurance experiment to test this explanation.