Treatment of acute otitis media with a shortened course of antibiotics: a meta-analysis.

Objective: To conduct a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials of antibiotic treatment of acute otitis media in children to determine whether outcomes were comparable in children treated with antibiotics for less than 7 days or at least 7 days or more.

Data Sources: MEDLINE (1966-1997), EMBASE (1974-1997), Current Contents, and Science Citation Index searches were conducted to identify randomized controlled trials of the treatment of acute otitis media in children with antibiotics of different durations.

Study Selection: Studies were included if they met the following criteria: subjects aged 4 weeks to 18 years, clinical diagnosis of acute otitis media, no antimicrobial therapy at time of diagnosis, and randomization to less than 7 days of antibiotic treatment vs 7 days or more of antibiotic treatment.

Sex differences in the use of health care services.

Background: Sex differences in the use of health care services can be substantial at several stages of life. However, the extent to which differences in reproductive biology and mortality affect the use of health care services is unclear.

Methods: We studied age- and sex-specific per capita use of health care resources for a one-year period during 1994 and 1995 in the Canadian province of Manitoba, where there is universal insurance for a comprehensive range of health care services.

Emergency department use as a component of total ambulatory care: a population perspective.

Objectives: (a) To describe the overall proportion of ambulatory care provided in emergency departments for a complete urban population, (b) to describe the variation across small geographic areas in the overall proportion of ambulatory care provided in emergency departments and (c) to identify attributes of small-area populations that are related to the provision of high proportions of total ambulatory care in emergency departments.

Design: Cross-sectional ecologic study combining 4 sources of secondary data on health service utilization and socioeconomic status.

Setting: Winnipeg.

Age-specific education and income gradients in morbidity and mortality in a Canadian province.

While important age-related trends in the use of health care services over the past two decades in Canada have been well described, a comprehensive description of socioeconomic gradients in morbidity and mortality across age cohorts for a representative population has not been accomplished to date in Canada. The objective of this study was to describe age-specific socioeconomic differentials in mortality and morbidity for a representative sample of a single Canadian province. The study sample was formed from the linkage of individual respondent records in the 1986 census to vital statistics records and comprehensive records of health care utilization for a 5% sample of residents of the province of Manitoba.

Private health care in Canada: savior or siren?

In canada, health care is publicly insured and available to all at no charge. Recently, financial pressures have threatened the system and led to considerable debate about how to save it. One proposal is to permit privately funded health care alongside the public system, resulting in what is popularly called a two-tiered system.

Complications, comorbidities, and mortality: improving classification and prediction.

Objective: First, to compare the distribution of complications and comorbidities associated with 17 common surgical procedures. We then describe the effect of augmenting an ICD-9-CM version of the Charlson comorbidity index, given the possible confounding of comorbidities and complications, for three common inpatient surgical procedures: coronary artery bypass surgery, pacemaker surgery, and hip fracture repair.

Data Sources And Study Setting: Individuals having one of the above procedures between April 1, 1990 and March 31, 1994, identified from Manitoba Health hospital discharge data, and their extracted records.

Case-control study of exposure to medication and the risk of injurious falls requiring hospitalization among nursing home residents.

The association between injurious falls requiring hospitalization and selected classes of medications was examined in a case-control study of nursing home residents. Information for this study was obtained exclusively from four computerized administrative databases. Over the period from April 1987 to March 1992, a total of 1,560 first injurious falls occurred to 14,744 residents of Manitoba, Canada, nursing homes who were eligible for inclusion in the study.

Variation in health and health care use by socioeconomic status in Winnipeg, Canada: does the system work well? Yes and no.

Health varies with socioeconomic status; those with higher incomes or who are better educated can expect to have better health. The success of the Canadian universal health care system in delivering care according to need was assessed. Consistent gradients in all-cause and cause-specific mortality according to neighborhood income characteristics are evident among Winnipeg residents.

Access to and use of physician resources by the rural and urban populations in Manitoba.

This paper examines access to and use of the physician resources for ambulatory care by residents of Winnipeg and rural areas in Manitoba. Analyses were conducted on physician claims submitted to Manitoba Health in the fiscal years 1986-87 and 1991-92. The percentage of people who made contact with physicians, the number of visits per 100 residents, and the number of visits per user were used to asses changes between 1986 and 1991.

Record linkage strategies, outpatient procedures, and administrative data.

By understanding the range of approaches implicit in modern record linkage, epidemiologists and health services researchers can better decide its suitability for their needs. The authors discuss a small record linkage project, providing a sense of where mistakes were made. The research first uses existing identification numbers as a gold standard for linking hospital abstracts and physician claims to investigate whether or not coronary angiography was performed on a given individual.

Short-term mortality after repair of hip fracture. Do Manitoba elderly do worse?

This article uses administrative data from Manitoba and New England to address the reasons underlying Manitoba's relatively high mortality in the 30 days after hip fracture repair. Both the Manitoba and New England data sets are population based, containing information on individuals 65 years of age or older in Manitoba (1979-1992; n = 10,007) and New England (1984-1985); n = 16,206). Various logistic regression models were estimated on pooled and separate data from Manitoba and New England; the models all showed similar predictive accuracy, having C statistics in the .

Population health and health care use: an information system for policy makers.

University-based researchers in Manitoba, Canada, have used administrative data routinely collected as part of the national health insurance plan to design a population-based health information system (POPULIS). Decision-makers can use this system to make critical comparisons across regions of residents' health status, socioeconomic risk characteristics, and use of hospitals, nursing homes, and physicians. Policy makers have found this information system useful in providing answers to questions they are often asked: Which populations need more physician services? Which need fewer? Are high-risk populations poorly served or do they have poor health outcomes despite being well served? Does high utilization represent overuse or is it related to high need? Three commentaries follow.

Utilization of nursing home resources.

The total use and cost of nursing homes in Manitoba, for the fiscal year 1991/1992 were analyzed using a population-based health information system. The use of hospital beds by elderly patients for stays of 60 days or more was also analyzed to see if long hospital stays were substituting for nursing home beds. More than one in ten Manitobans 75 years of age and older and one in three who were 85 years and older resided in a nursing home for some time during the study period.

Utilization of hospital resources.

A population-based approach was used to analyze the utilization patterns of hospital care by Manitoba residents during the fiscal year 1991/1992. Patterns were analyzed for eight administrative regions, with use assigned to the patient's region of residence, regardless of the location of the hospitalization. Regional boundaries consistent with those used for presentation of data on health status and socioeconomic risk permitted integration of findings across the Population Health Information System.

Socioeconomic status and the health of the population.

To examine the relationship of a population's socioeconomic characteristics to its health status and use of health care services, a composite socioeconomic risk index was developed for the Population Health Information System. From a set of 23 socioeconomic indicators derived from public use census data, a summary index was formed from six indicators to generate profiles for the eight health regions of the province. Regional scores were plotted against an index of health status measures and against measures of health care utilization.

From research to policy: what have we learned from designing the Population Health Information System?

This article discusses the lessons learned from the experience of designing and using a population health information system and the policy implications of information generated. A useful system must include measures of the population's health status and socioeconomic risk when analyzing health care use. The strong gradient that can be demonstrated in service use across income groups where these indicators are included challenges policymakers and health care managers to rethink fundamental beliefs about the role of medical care.

A population-based health information system.

The authors introduce the Population Health Information System, its conceptual framework, and the data elements required to implement such a system in other jurisdictions. Among other innovations, the Population Health Information System distinguishes between indicators of health status (outcomes measures) and indicators of need for health care (socioeconomic measures of risk for poor health). The system also can be used to perform needs-based planning and challenge delivery patterns.

The Population Health Information System: data analysis and software.

This article describes the software developed in the process of creating the Population Health Information System. The software can be applied to a range of administrative data and provides standardized data on the health status and health care use of populations by generating population-based rates of discrete events. The standardized approach permits construction of a comprehensive, comparative picture for residents of defined geographic regions.

Using the information system to assess change: the impact of downsizing the acute sector.

A population-based approach was used to monitor impact of hospital bed closures in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Four years of administrative data were analyzed. Access to hospital services was not adversely affected: The reduction in beds resulted in increases in outpatient surgery and earlier discharges.

Variation in length of stay as a measure of efficiency in Manitoba hospitals.

Objective: To examine the efficiency of Manitoba hospitals by analysing variations in length of stay for patients with similar characteristics.

Design: Retrospective study. Multiple regression analyses were used to adjust for patient (case-mix) characteristics and to identify differences in length of stay attributable to the hospital of admission for 14 specific, frequently encountered diagnostic categories and for all acute admissions.

Impact of a nurses' strike on the cesarean birth rate.

Objective: Our purpose is to describe the impact of a 31-day nurses' strike on the cesarean birth rate in the province of Manitoba, Canada.

Study Design: Computerized hospital records, obtained for all births over a 24-month period, were used to identify complications of labor indicating cesarean section, method of delivery, and adverse maternal and newborn outcomes. The strike interval was compared with a 16-month prestrike period.

The relationship of prenatal care and pregnancy complications to birthweight in Winnipeg, Canada.

Objectives: Prenatal care is commonly understood to have a beneficial impact on birthweight. This study describes socioeconomic differences in utilization of prenatal medical care and birthweight in a population with universal health insurance.

Methods: Measures of prenatal care utilization, incidence of pregnancy complications, and birthweight were obtained from physician reimbursement claims and hospital separation abstracts for 12,646 pregnant women.

Comparing standardized rates of events.

This paper reviews issues associated with testing a null hypothesis of the equality of, and generating descriptive statistics for, standardized rates of events--recurrent or non-recurrent. The variance estimation for rates of surgical procedures, hospitalizations, and health care expenditures is discussed in the context of small area analysis. The proposed approach for estimating the variance of standardized rates is independent of assumptions about the underlying distribution of rates, is widely applicable, and seems preferable to approaches derived under special, but uncertain, parametric assumptions.