Eric Andrew Finkelstein

Journal Article Med Decis Making · November 15, 2024 OBJECTIVES: To examine awareness of disease incurability among patients with heart failure over 24 mo and its associations with patient characteristics and patient-reported outcomes (distress, emotional, and spiritual well-being). METHODS: This study analy ... Full text Link to item Cite

Evaluating a multicomponent intervention for managing kidney outcomes among patients with moderate or advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD): protocol for the Strategies for Kidney Outcomes Prevention and Evaluation (SKOPE) randomized controlled trial.

Journal Article Trials · October 30, 2024 BACKGROUND: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) poses a global health challenge with high morbidity and mortality rates. Early detection and prompt intervention are critical in preventing progression to end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) and cardiovascular complicat ... Full text Link to item Cite

Navigating dementia feeding decisions in Asia: a mixed methods study of caregivers.

Journal Article Age Ageing · October 1, 2024 BACKGROUND: Tube feeding is discouraged among older adults with advanced dementia; nevertheless, caregivers often find feeding decisions challenging to navigate. AIM: This study aims to gain a comprehensive understanding of tube feeding among community-dwe ... Full text Link to item Cite

Societal Preferences for Subsidizing Treatments Targeting Patients With Advanced Illness: A Discrete Choice Experiment.

Journal Article Value Health Reg Issues · September 2024 OBJECTIVES: Cost-effectiveness analyses are increasingly used to inform subvention decisions for moderately life extending treatments but apply several simplifying assumptions that may be inconsistent with public preferences. Contrary to standard assumptio ... Full text Link to item Cite

Efficacy of an mHealth-delivered behavioral intervention on weight loss and cardiometabolic risk in African American postpartum people with overweight or obesity: the SnapBack randomized controlled trial.

Journal Article Obesity (Silver Spring) · September 2024 OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a mobile health (mHealth)-delivered behavioral intervention on changes in postpartum weight and cardiometabolic risk factors (blood pressure [BP], lipids, and hemoglobin A1c) over 12 mo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Navigating Public Policy Responses to a Pandemic: The Balancing Act Between Physical Health, Mental Health, and Household Income.

Journal Article Value Health · August 2024 OBJECTIVE: During COVID-19, governments imposed restrictions that reduced pandemic-related health risks but likely increased personal and societal mental health risk, partly through reductions in household income. This study aimed to quantify the public's ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cost-effectiveness of group medical visits and microfinance interventions versus usual care to manage hypertension in Kenya: a secondary modelling analysis of data from the Bridging Income Generation with Group Integrated Care (BIGPIC) trial.

Journal Article Lancet Glob Health · August 2024 BACKGROUND: The Bridging Income Generation with Group Integrated Care (BIGPIC) trial in rural Kenya showed that integrating usual care with group medical visits or microfinance interventions reduced systolic blood pressure and cardiovascular risk in partic ... Full text Link to item Cite

To pool or not to pool: Accounting for task non-attendance in subgroup analysis

Journal Article Journal of Choice Modelling · June 1, 2024 Pooling data from different subgroups offers advantages of shrinking standard errors and simplifying characterization of the data structure. The ability to pool data also facilitates meta-analysis to evaluate consensus among multiple studies and to inform ... Full text Cite

Correction: Weight Gain Prevention Outcomes From a Pragmatic Digital Health Intervention With Community Health Center Patients: Randomized Controlled Trial.

Journal Article J Med Internet Res · May 13, 2024 [This corrects the article DOI: 10.2196/50330.]. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cost-effectiveness of sodium zirconium cyclosilicate for advanced chronic kidney patients in Singapore.

Journal Article Nephrology (Carlton) · May 2024 INTRODUCTION: Hyperkalaemia (HK) is prevalent among patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and chronic heart failure, especially if they are treated with renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors (RAASi). This study evaluated the cost-effectivene ... Full text Link to item Cite

Getting it right with discrete choice experiments: Are we hot or cold?

Journal Article Soc Sci Med · May 2024 Discrete Choice Experiments (DCEs) are widely employed survey-based methods to assess preferences for healthcare services and products. While they offer an experimental way to represent health-related decisions, the stylized representation of scenarios in ... Full text Link to item Cite

Influencing the nutritional quality of grocery purchases: A randomized trial to evaluate the impact of a social norm-based behavioral intervention with and without a loss-framed financial incentive

Journal Article Food Policy · May 1, 2024 Poor diet quality increases risks for non-communicable diseases. Interventions that leverage insights from psychology and economic theory are hypothesized to improve diet quality. This study tested the incremental effectiveness of these approaches using a ... Full text Cite

Evaluating novel methods of enhancing the impact of financial incentives on household nutrition in developing nations - authors' reply.

Journal Article Lancet Reg Health Southeast Asia · May 2024 Full text Link to item Cite

'I secretly wish. . .' Caregivers' expression of wish for death of persons with severe dementia.

Journal Article Age Ageing · May 1, 2024 BACKGROUND: Qualitative evidence suggests that caregivers may express a wish for death of persons with severe dementia (PwSD). No study has assessed the extent to which it happens, stability of this wish over time and the factors associated with it. OBJECT ... Full text Link to item Cite

Healthcare burden of cognitive impairment: Evidence from a Singapore Chinese health study.

Journal Article Ann Acad Med Singap · April 29, 2024 BACKGROUND: Cognitive impairment (CI) raises risks for unplanned healthcare utilisation and expenditures and for premature mortality. It may also reduce risks for planned expenditures. Therefore, the net cost implications for those with CI remain unknown. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cost-Effectiveness of a Multicomponent Primary Care Intervention for Hypertension.

Journal Article J Am Heart Assoc · April 16, 2024 BACKGROUND: The SingHypertension primary care clinic intervention, which consisted of clinician training in hypertension management, subsidized single-pill combination medications, nurse-delivered motivational conversations and telephone follow-ups, improv ... Full text Link to item Cite

Prognostic awareness and prognostic information preferences among advanced cancer patients in Kenya.

Journal Article Afr J Prim Health Care Fam Med · April 11, 2024 BACKGROUND: Cancer is the third leading cause of death in Kenya. Yet, little is known about prognostic awareness and preferences for prognostic information. AIM: To assess the prevalence of prognostic awareness and preference for prognostic information a ... Full text Link to item Cite

PRECIOUS demonstrated satisfactory measurement properties for assessing the quality of care for children with serious illnesses.

Journal Article J Clin Epidemiol · April 2024 OBJECTIVES: To determine the measurement properties of PaRental Experience with care for Children with serIOUS illnesses (PRECIOUS), a parent-reported measure of Quality of Care for seriously ill children across care settings and illness trajectories. STUD ... Full text Link to item Cite

Goals of Care Among Patients With Advanced Cancer and Their Family Caregivers in the Last Years of Life.

Journal Article JAMA Netw Open · April 1, 2024 IMPORTANCE: Understanding goals of care for terminally ill patients at the end of life is crucial to ensure that patients receive care consistent with their preferences. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the patterns of goals of care among patient-caregiver dyads ... Full text Link to item Cite

Weight Gain Prevention Outcomes From a Pragmatic Digital Health Intervention With Community Health Center Patients: Randomized Controlled Trial.

Journal Article J Med Internet Res · March 28, 2024 BACKGROUND: The prevalence of obesity and its associated comorbidities continue to rise in the United States. Populations who are uninsured and from racial and ethnic minority groups continue to be disproportionately affected. These populations also experi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Extending the diabetic retinopathy screening intervals in Singapore: methodology and preliminary findings of a cohort study.

Journal Article BMC Public Health · March 13, 2024 BACKGROUND: The Diabetic Retinopathy Extended Screening Study (DRESS) aims to develop and validate a new DR/diabetic macular edema (DME) risk stratification model in patients with Type 2 diabetes (DM) to identify low-risk groups who can be safely assigned ... Full text Link to item Cite

Development of the Parental Experience with Care for Children with Serious Illnesses (PRECIOUS) quality of care measure.

Journal Article BMC Palliat Care · March 8, 2024 BACKGROUND: Parent-reported experience measures are part of pediatric Quality of Care (QoC) assessments. However, existing measures were not developed for use across multiple healthcare settings or throughout the illness trajectory of seriously ill childre ... Full text Link to item Cite

The association of prognostic awareness with quality of life, spiritual well-being, psychological distress, and pain severity in patients with advanced cancer: Results from the APPROACH Study in Indonesia.

Journal Article Palliative & supportive care · March 2024 Background and objectivesAdvanced cancer patients' understanding of their illness is key for making informed treatment decisions. Despite the known importance of patients' awareness of their disease prognosis, it is debatable whether this awarenes ... Full text Cite

Weak grip strength predicts higher unplanned healthcare utilization among patients with heart failure.

Journal Article ESC Heart Fail · February 2024 AIMS: Frailty increases healthcare utilization and costs for patients with heart failure but is challenging to assess in clinical settings. Hand grip strength (GS) is a single-item measure of frailty yet lacks evidence as a potential screening tool to iden ... Full text Link to item Cite

ENABLE-SG (Educate, Nurture, Advise, Before Life Ends for Singapore) as a proactive palliative care model: protocol for a hybrid type 1 effectiveness-implementation randomized wait-list controlled trial.

Journal Article BMC Palliat Care · January 30, 2024 BACKGROUND: Specialist palliative care is often provided late in the patient's disease trajectory in response to uncontrolled symptoms. Shifting from this reactionary illness-stress paradigm to a proactive health-wellness approach, the ENABLE (Educate, Nur ... Full text Link to item Cite

Unravelling complex choices: multi-stakeholder perceptions on dialysis withdrawal and end-of-life care in kidney disease.

Journal Article BMC Nephrol · January 3, 2024 BACKGROUND: For patients on dialysis with poor quality of life and prognosis, dialysis withdrawal and subsequent transition to palliative care is recommended. This study aims to understand multi-stakeholder perspectives regarding dialysis withdrawal and id ... Full text Link to item Cite

Are cash incentives always king? A randomized controlled trial evaluating hedonic versus cash incentives (TEH-C).

Journal Article Front Public Health · 2024 INTRODUCTION: Physical inactivity is a risk factor for obesity and non-communicable diseases. Despite myriad health and non-health benefits resulting from physical activity (PA), most individuals do not meet PA recommendations. Providing an incentive for m ... Full text Link to item Cite

Public policies to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behavior: a narrative synthesis of "reviews of reviews".

Journal Article Glob Health Action · December 31, 2023 BACKGROUND: Physical inactivity among the general population is of great concern in public health. OBJECTIVE: This narrative review aims to identify promising physical activity (PA) public policies based on the best available evidence from the literature. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cancer patients' awareness of extent of disease: anxiety, depression, quality of life.

Journal Article BMJ Support Palliat Care · November 24, 2023 OBJECTIVE: In Asian cultures, the belief that full disclosure would harm the patient's health would lead to non-disclosure. The study aimed to determine whether making patients aware of the extent of their disease will lead to psychological morbidity and p ... Full text Link to item Cite

Protocol update and baseline characteristics for the TRIal to slow the Progression of Diabetes (TRIPOD) randomized controlled trial.

Journal Article Trials · November 14, 2023 BACKGROUND: Type 2 diabetes (T2D), a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and other adverse health conditions, is on the rise in Singapore. TRIPOD is a randomized controlled trial aimed to determine whether complementing usual care with an evidence ... Full text Link to item Cite

Trade-Offs between Vaccine Effectiveness and Vaccine Safety: Personal versus Policy Decisions.

Journal Article Pharmacoecon Open · November 2023 OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate whether individuals' trade-offs between vaccine effectiveness and vaccine safety vary if they are asked to consider the perspective of a policymaker making decisions for others compared with the decisions they would make ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Changes in Prognostic Beliefs of Patients With Metastatic Cancer and Their Association With Changing Health Status.

Journal Article J Natl Compr Canc Netw · October 2023 BACKGROUND: Patients' prognostic beliefs are known to influence treatment decisions. However, the evolution of these beliefs over an extended period in patients with metastatic cancer is understudied. We assessed longitudinal changes in prognostic beliefs ... Full text Link to item Cite

Quality of life and psychological distress of patients with advanced cancer in the Philippines.

Journal Article Qual Life Res · August 2023 PURPOSE: This study aimed to describe the quality of life (QOL) and psychological distress (anxiety and depression) of Filipino patients with advanced solid cancers and identify sociodemographic and clinical-related factors associated with them. METHODS: 1 ... Full text Link to item Cite

A systematic review of the economic value proposition for commercially available nonsurgical weight-loss interventions.

Journal Article Obesity (Silver Spring) · July 2023 OBJECTIVE: The study aim was to review the economic evaluation literature of commercially available and effective nonsurgical weight-loss interventions to investigate whether there is evidence to support claims of cost-effectiveness (i.e., good value for m ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Randomized Controlled Study to Test Front-of-Pack (FOP) Nutrition Labels in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Journal Article Nutrients · June 27, 2023 One common strategy for governments to tackle the non-communicable disease (NCD) epidemic is front-of-package (FOP) nutrition labeling. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is considering implementing a new FOP label that is based on either France's Nutri-Sco ... Full text Link to item Cite

Effectiveness of Interventions Promoting Physical Activity and Reducing Sedentary Behavior in Community-Dwelling Older Adults: An Umbrella Review With Application to Saudi Arabia.

Journal Article J Epidemiol Glob Health · June 2023 BACKGROUND: As Saudi Arabia is expected to face population aging in the future, the burden of diseases arising from inadequate physical activity (PA) and excess sedentary behavior (SB) may subsequently increase without successful interventions. The present ... Full text Link to item Cite

Healthcare utilization and costs of singaporean youth with symptoms of depression and anxiety: results from a 2022 web panel.

Journal Article Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health · May 11, 2023 BACKGROUND: There is evidence that the prevalence of depression and anxiety among youth is increasing and that these factors contribute to high healthcare costs and poor school performance. The goal of this study is to provide up-to-date estimates of the p ... Full text Link to item Cite

A prospective cohort study of decision-making role preferences of patients with advanced cancer and their family caregivers.

Journal Article Cancer · May 1, 2023 BACKGROUND: This study aimed to examine (1) the evolution of patients-caregiver dyad decision-making role preferences over 3 years and the predictors of these preferences; and (2) discordance in decision-making role preferences among dyads. METHODS: A tota ... Full text Link to item Cite

Can we have our cake and eat it too? Not when it comes to antiobesity medication prices.

Journal Article Obesity (Silver Spring) · May 2023 Full text Link to item Cite

Impact of a financial incentive scheme on purchase of fruits and vegetables from unorganised retailers in rural India: a cluster-randomised controlled trial.

Journal Article Lancet Reg Health Southeast Asia · May 2023 BACKGROUND: Inadequate intake of fruits and vegetables is prevalent in rural areas of India, where around 65% of the population reside. Financial incentives have been shown to increase the purchase of fruits and vegetables in urban supermarkets, but their ... Full text Link to item Cite

A prospective study of psychological distress among patients with advanced cancer and their caregivers.

Journal Article Cancer Med · April 2023 BACKGROUND: Cancer can impact the psychological well-being of both patients and their informal caregivers. We investigated the joint trajectories of psychological distress among Singaporean advanced cancer patients-caregiver dyads. We also examined predict ... Full text Link to item Cite

The impact of obesity: a narrative review.

Journal Article Singapore medical journal · March 2023 Obesity is a disease with a major negative impact on human health. However, people with obesity may not perceive their weight to be a significant problem and less than half of patients with obesity are advised by their physicians to lose weight. The purpos ... Full text Cite

A randomized trial to evaluate the impact of Singapore's forthcoming Nutri-grade front-of-pack beverage label on food and beverage purchases.

Journal Article Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act · February 15, 2023 BACKGROUND: The epidemic of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is a growing concern worldwide and Singapore is no exception to this global trend. As part of measures to address this concern, the Singapore government will implement a mandatory color-coded fro ... Full text Link to item Cite

Prevalence and economic burden of depression and anxiety symptoms among Singaporean adults: results from a 2022 web panel.

Journal Article BMC Psychiatry · February 14, 2023 BACKGROUND: Major depressive disorder (MDD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are leading causes of disability and premature mortality. At a global level, over 300 million people are estimated to suffer from major depressive disorders, equivalent to 4 ... Full text Link to item Cite

Caregiver-Reported Roles in Treatment Decision Making in Advanced Cancer and Associated Caregiving Burden and Psychological Distress: A Longitudinal Study.

Journal Article Med Decis Making · February 2023 OBJECTIVE: To longitudinally examine caregiver-reported treatment decision-making roles and to investigate the associations of these roles with caregiver burden, caregiving esteem, caregiver anxiety, and depression. METHODS: 281 caregivers of patients with ... Full text Link to item Cite

Variation in Patient-Reported Decision-Making Roles in the Last Year of Life among Patients with Metastatic Cancer: A Longitudinal Study.

Journal Article Med Decis Making · February 2023 OBJECTIVE: We investigated the variation in patient-reported decision-making roles in the past year of life among patients with metastatic solid cancer and the associations of these roles with patient quality of life and perceived quality of care. METHODS: ... Full text Link to item Cite

Prognostic awareness and its association with health outcomes in the last year of life.

Journal Article Cancer Med · February 2023 BACKGROUND: Little research has examined changes in prognostic awareness (PA) in the last year of life and the extent PA change was associated with anxiety, depression, and spiritual well-being among metastatic cancer patients. METHODS: Two surveys were ad ... Full text Link to item Cite

The relationship between hope, medical expenditure and survival among advanced cancer patients.

Journal Article Front Psychol · 2023 INTRODUCTION: Among those with advanced illness, higher levels of hope may offer physiological benefits. Yet, greater levels of hope may also encourage aggressive treatments. Therefore, higher levels of hope may lead to greater healthcare utilization, high ... Full text Link to item Cite

A qualitative exploration of parental perspectives on quality of care for children with serious illnesses.

Journal Article Front Pediatr · 2023 INTRODUCTION: Being responsive to end-users is essential to good care. Limited in-depth exploration of parental perspectives on care received by children over the course of serious illness has hindered the development of process measures to evaluate qualit ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Prospective Cohort Study of Medical Decision-Making Roles and Their Associations with Patient Characteristics and Patient-Reported Outcomes among Patients with Heart Failure.

Journal Article Med Decis Making · 2023 OBJECTIVE: Among patients with heart failure (HF), we examined 1) the evolution of patient involvement in decision making over 2 y, 2) the association of patient characteristics with decision-making roles, and 3) the association of decision-making roles wi ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Cost-effectiveness of alternative first- and second-line treatments for benign prostatic hyperplasia in Singapore.

Journal Article J Med Econ · 2023 BACKGROUND: Minimally invasive surgical therapies, such as water vapor thermal therapy (WVTT) and prostatic urethral lift (PUL), are typically second-line options for patients in whom medical management (MM) failed but who are unwilling or unsuitable to un ... Full text Link to item Cite

Protocol for a multi-site randomized controlled trial of a stepped-care intervention for emergency department patients with panic-related anxiety.

Journal Article BMC Psychiatry · December 16, 2022 BACKGROUND: Approximately 40% of Emergency Department (ED) patients with chest pain meet diagnostic criteria for panic-related anxiety, but only 1-2% are correctly diagnosed and appropriately managed in the ED. A stepped-care model, which focuses on provid ... Full text Link to item Cite

Disparities in end-of-life outcomes among advanced cancer patients in Sri Lanka: Results from the APPROACH study.

Journal Article Palliat Support Care · December 2022 OBJECTIVE: A Universal Health Coverage goal is to provide access to affordable palliative care to reduce disparities in end-of-life (EOL) outcomes. To assess progress toward this goal in Sri Lanka, our primary aim was to systematically assess differences i ... Full text Link to item Cite

Real-world cost-effectiveness of anti-VEGF monotherapy and combination therapy for the treatment of polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy.

Journal Article Eye (Lond) · December 2022 OBJECTIVES: For patients with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV), intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) combination therapy has been shown to be cost-saving relative to monotherapy in a clinical trial setting. However, wheth ... Full text Link to item Cite

Air quality valuation using online surveys in three Asian megacities

Journal Article Resources, Environment and Sustainability · December 1, 2022 Due to worsening air quality across many cities in developing countries, there is an urgent need to consider more aggressive air pollution control measures. Valuation of the benefits of clean air is crucial for establishing the rationale for such policies, ... Full text Cite

Patient Medication Preferences for Managing Dry Eye Disease: The Importance of Medication Side Effects.

Journal Article Patient · November 2022 OBJECTIVES: The side effects of dry eye medications can lead to medication non-adherence and, eventually, to poor outcomes. This study aimed to quantify to what extent the side effects of dry eye disease (DED) medications (burning/stinging sensation and bl ... Full text Link to item Cite

Awareness and Utilization of Palliative Care Among Advanced Cancer Patients in Asia.

Journal Article J Pain Symptom Manage · October 2022 CONTEXT: To date, little is known about palliative care (PC) awareness and utilization in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in Asia. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate PC awareness and its predictors, utilization of PC services, and perceiv ... Full text Link to item Cite

Preferences for a non-invasive prenatal test as first-line screening for Down Syndrome: A discrete choice experiment.

Journal Article Prenat Diagn · October 2022 OBJECTIVE: To investigate preferences of pregnant women for the characteristics of prenatal testing, and to quantify their willingness-to-pay (WTP) for non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) as first-line screening for Down Syndrome. METHOD: A cross-sectiona ... Full text Link to item Cite

Baseline characteristics of participants in the Pre-Diabetes Interventions and Continued Tracking to Ease-out Diabetes (Pre-DICTED) Program.

Journal Article BMJ Open Diabetes Res Care · October 2022 OBJECTIVE: The Pre-Diabetes Interventions and Continued Tracking to Ease-out Diabetes (Pre-DICTED) Program is a diabetes prevention trial comparing the diabetes conversion rate at 3 years between the intervention group, which receives the incentivized life ... Full text Link to item Cite

Economic burden of excess weight among older adults in Singapore: a cross-sectional study.

Journal Article BMJ Open · September 16, 2022 OBJECTIVES: To estimate the incremental per capita and aggregate direct and indirect costs of excess weight among older adults (aged 40-80) in Singapore. DESIGN: Secondary data analysis of an existing cross-sectional survey SETTING: Residential districts i ... Full text Link to item Cite

Parent-Reported Experience Measures of Care for Children With Serious Illnesses: A Scoping Review.

Journal Article Pediatr Crit Care Med · September 1, 2022 OBJECTIVE: This scoping review aimed to: 1) identify parent-reported experience measures (PaREMs) for parents of children with serious illnesses from peer-reviewed literature, 2) map the types of care experience being evaluated in PaREMs, 3) identify and d ... Full text Link to item Cite

Healthcare Cost Trajectories in the Last 2 Years of Life Among Patients With a Solid Metastatic Cancer: A Prospective Cohort Study.

Journal Article J Natl Compr Canc Netw · September 2022 BACKGROUND: Most studies describe the "average healthcare cost trend" among patients with cancer. We aimed to delineate heterogeneous trajectories of healthcare cost during the last 2 years of life of patients with a metastatic cancer and to assess the ass ... Full text Link to item Cite

Evaluation of Combinations of Nudging, Pricing, and Labeling Strategies to Improve Diet Quality: A Virtual Grocery Store Experiment Employing a Multiphase Optimization Strategy.

Journal Article Ann Behav Med · August 30, 2022 BACKGROUND: Several intervention strategies have been shown to improve diet quality. However, there is limited evidence on the increase in effectiveness that may be achieved through select combinations of these strategies. PURPOSE: This study aimed to iden ... Full text Link to item Cite

Accuracy incentives and framing effects to minimize the influence of cognitive bias among advanced cancer patients.

Journal Article J Health Psychol · August 2022 Many patients with advanced illness have unrealistic survival expectations, largely due to cognitive biases. Studies suggests that when people are motivated to be accurate, they are less prone to succumb to these biases. Using a randomized survey design, w ... Full text Link to item Cite

Patients' Awareness of Advanced Disease Status, Psychological Distress and Quality of Life Among Patients With Advanced Cancer: Results From the APPROACH Study, India.

Journal Article Am J Hosp Palliat Care · July 2022 BACKGROUND: Prognostic disclosure to patients with advanced cancer facilitates treatment decisions and goals of care discussions. However, the perspectives of patients, families and physicians differ in this regard across different cultures. Non-disclosure ... Full text Link to item Cite

Perspectives on the Form, Magnitude, Certainty, Target, and Frequency of Financial Incentives in a Weight Loss Program.

Journal Article Am J Health Promot · July 2022 PURPOSE: Financial incentives are a promising approach to enhance weight loss outcomes; however, little guidance exists on the optimal incentive structure. DESIGN: Mixed methods. SETTING: An online weight management trial, combining outcome (i.e., weight l ... Full text Link to item Cite

Longitudinal trajectories of caregiving experiences among primary informal caregivers of patients with metastatic solid cancer (stage IV).

Journal Article Psychooncology · July 2022 OBJECTIVE: Cancer is a significant cause of mortality worldwide. The diagnosis of advanced cancer affects both patients and their family caregivers. Understanding the course of both negative and positive experiences of caregiving provides a more comprehens ... Full text Link to item Cite

Advanced Cancer Patients' Prognostic Awareness and Its Association With Anxiety, Depression and Spiritual Well-Being: A Multi-Country Study in Asia.

Journal Article Clin Oncol (R Coll Radiol) · June 2022 AIMS: The associations between prognostic awareness, acceptance of illness and psychological outcomes (anxiety, depression and spiritual well-being) remain unclear. This study examined the associations between prognostic awareness and various psychological ... Full text Link to item Cite

Perceived stigma and its correlates among Asian patients with advanced cancer: A multi-country APPROACH study.

Journal Article Psychooncology · June 2022 OBJECTIVES: Perceived cancer-related stigma can affect mental health and potentially treatment choices for patients with cancer. Nevertheless, perceived stigma is not very well understood in Asia. This study investigated across six developing Asian countri ... Full text Link to item Cite

Integration of a multicomponent intervention for hypertension into primary healthcare services in Singapore-A cluster randomized controlled trial.

Journal Article PLoS Med · June 2022 BACKGROUND: Despite availability of clinical practice guidelines for hypertension management, blood pressure (BP) control remains sub-optimal (<30%) even in high-income countries. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of a potentially scalable multic ... Full text Link to item Cite

A prospective cohort study assessing aggressive interventions at the end-of-life among patients with solid metastatic cancer.

Journal Article BMC Palliat Care · May 16, 2022 BACKGROUND: Many patients with a solid metastatic cancer are treated aggressively during their last month of life. Using data from a large prospective cohort study of patients with an advanced cancer, we aimed to assess the number and predictors of aggress ... Full text Link to item Cite

Adoption of Preventive Behaviour Strategies and Public Perceptions About COVID-19 in Singapore.

Journal Article Int J Health Policy Manag · May 1, 2022 BACKGROUND: The unprecedented severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) constitutes a serious public health concern. However, adoption of COVID-19-related preventive behaviours remain relatively unknown. This study investigated predictors of preventi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Impact of noncommunicable diseases on direct medical costs and worker productivity, Saudi Arabia.

Journal Article East Mediterr Health J · April 28, 2022 BACKGROUND: The prevalence of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) has been increasing in Saudi Arabia. AIMS: Our objective was to estimate the effect of NCDs on direct medical costs and workforce productivity in Saudi Arabia. METHODS: To estimate direct medica ... Full text Link to item Cite

What is a Good Death? A Choice Experiment on Care Indicators for Patients at End of Life.

Journal Article J Pain Symptom Manage · April 2022 CONTEXT: Health systems should aim to deliver on what matters most to patients. With respect to end of life (EOL) care, knowledge on patient preferences for care is currently lacking. OBJECTIVES: To quantify preference weights for key EOL care indicators. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Identifying Core Domains to Assess the "Quality of Death": A Scoping Review.

Journal Article Journal of pain and symptom management · April 2022 ContextThere is growing recognition of the value to patients, families, society, and health systems in providing healthcare, including end-of-life care, that is consistent with both patient preferences and clinical guidelines.ObjectivesId ... Full text Cite

Cross Country Comparison of Expert Assessments of the Quality of Death and Dying 2021.

Journal Article J Pain Symptom Manage · April 2022 CONTEXT: Few efforts have attempted to quantify how well countries deliver end-of-life (EOL) care. OBJECTIVES: To score, grade, and rank countries (and Hong Kong and Taiwan) on the quality of EOL care based on assessments from country experts using a novel ... Full text Link to item Cite

Intended and unintended consequences of salient nutrition labels

Journal Article American Journal of Agricultural Economics · March 1, 2022 Profit maximizing firms sometimes engage in voluntary informative advertising, usually to promote their reputation as honest brokers. One example of informative advertising is shelf nutrition labels that some supermarket chains voluntarily provide. Several ... Full text Cite

Letter to the Editor: Cost-analysis of Surgical Intraocular Pressure Management in Glaucoma.

Journal Article J Glaucoma · March 1, 2022 Full text Link to item Cite

Report of the Lancet Commission on the Value of Death: bringing death back into life.

Journal Article Lancet · February 26, 2022 Full text Link to item Cite

Randomized controlled trial of financial incentives during weight-loss induction and maintenance in online group weight control.

Journal Article Obesity (Silver Spring) · January 2022 OBJECTIVE: This study examined the impact of a financial incentive scheme integrating process and outcome incentives across weight-loss induction and weight maintenance on 18-month weight outcomes. METHODS: This was a randomized controlled trial. Participa ... Full text Link to item Cite

The economic burden of overweight and obesity in Saudi Arabia.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2022 CONTEXT: The prevalence of overweight and obesity in Saudi Arabia has been rising. Although the health burden of excess weight is well established, little is known about the economic burden. AIMS: To assess the economic burden-both direct medical costs and ... Full text Link to item Cite

Parturients' Stated Preferences for Labor Analgesia: A Discrete Choice Experiment.

Journal Article Patient Prefer Adherence · 2022 OBJECTIVE: The objective was to investigate the extent to which treatment benefits, risks and costs affected parturients' preferences for labor analgesia. METHODS: We recruited 248 healthy parturients prior to labor at an antenatal ward and administered a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Understanding patient preferences in anti-VEGF treatment options for age-related macular degeneration.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2022 PURPOSE: (1) To investigate the relative importance of convenience (consultation frequency and injection frequency) against treatment outcomes (visual and anatomical outcomes) and out-of-pocket medical costs via a discrete choice experiment (DCE), and (2) ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cost-Effective Analysis of Dual-Energy Computed Tomography for the Diagnosis of Occult Hip Fractures Among Older Adults.

Journal Article Value Health · December 2021 OBJECTIVE: Early and accurate diagnosis of hip fractures minimizes morbidity and mortality. Although current guidelines favor magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the diagnosis of occult hip fractures, a new technology called dual-energy computed tomograph ... Full text Link to item Cite

High anxiety and depression scores and mental health service use among South Asian advanced cancer patients: A multi-country study.

Journal Article J Pain Symptom Manage · November 2021 CONTEXT: Addressing symptoms of anxiety and depression is important in cancer palliative care. However, little information exists on the prevalence of anxiety and depression and mental health service use among advanced cancer patients in South Asia. OBJECT ... Full text Link to item Cite

Patient Decision Aid Development for Older Adults With End-Stage Kidney Disease in Singapore.

Journal Article Kidney Int Rep · November 2021 INTRODUCTION: In managing end-stage kidney disease (ESKD), older adults face a decision regarding whether to undergo dialysis or manage symptoms through kidney supportive care (KSC). This article describes the development of a patient decision aid (PDA) th ... Full text Link to item Cite

Use of a Mobile Lifestyle Intervention App as an Early Intervention for Adolescents With Obesity: Single-Cohort Study.

Journal Article J Med Internet Res · September 28, 2021 BACKGROUND: Effective, resource-efficient treatment is urgently needed to address the high rates of pediatric and adolescent obesity. This need has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The use of a mobile health tool as an early intervention before a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Trajectories of Suffering in the Last Year of Life Among Patients With a Solid Metastatic Cancer.

Journal Article J Natl Compr Canc Netw · September 7, 2021 BACKGROUND: Reducing suffering at the end of life is important. Doing so requires a comprehensive understanding of the course of suffering for patients with cancer during their last year of life. This study describes trajectories of psychological, spiritua ... Full text Link to item Cite

Reduced health-care utilization among people with chronic medical conditions during coronavirus disease 2019

Journal Article Proceedings of Singapore Healthcare · September 1, 2021 The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak may impact the health-care-seeking behaviour of people with pre-existing chronic medical conditions. We aimed to assess the extent, reasons and correlates of reduced health-care utilization among people with ... Full text Cite

Process- and Outcome-Based Financial Incentives to Improve Self-Management and Glycemic Control in People with Type 2 Diabetes in Singapore: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Journal Article Patient · September 2021 BACKGROUND: Sub-optimally controlled diabetes increases risks for adverse and costly complications. Self-management including glucose monitoring, medication adherence, and exercise are key for optimal glycemic control, yet, poor self-management remains com ... Full text Link to item Cite

Discordance Between Advanced Cancer Patients' Perceived and Preferred Roles in Decision Making and its Association with Psychological Distress and Perceived Quality of Care.

Journal Article Patient · September 2021 OBJECTIVE: We investigated patient-reported roles of families, physicians, and patients themselves in treatment decision making and whether discordance between perceived and preferred roles is associated with psychological distress and perceived quality of ... Full text Link to item Cite

Correction to: Financial difficulties and patient‑reported outcomes among patients with advanced heart failure.

Journal Article Qual Life Res · September 2021 Full text Link to item Cite

The Pre-Diabetes Interventions and Continued Tracking to Ease-out Diabetes (Pre-DICTED) program: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Journal Article Trials · August 6, 2021 BACKGROUND: Community-based diabetes prevention programs varied widely in effectiveness, and the intervention strategy consisting of lifestyle interventions, stepwise addition of metformin, and financial incentives has not been studied in real-world clinic ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Prospective Cohort Study of Stability in Preferred Place of Death Among Patients With Stage IV Cancer in Singapore.

Journal Article J Natl Compr Canc Netw · August 5, 2021 BACKGROUND: Advance care planning (ACP) involves documentation of patients' preferred place of death (PoD). This assumes that patients' preferred PoD will not change over time; yet, evidence for this is inconclusive. We aimed to assess the extent and corre ... Full text Link to item Cite

Return on Investment of Workplace Wellness Programs for Chronic Disease Prevention: A Systematic Review.

Journal Article Am J Prev Med · August 2021 CONTEXT: Individuals with noncommunicable diseases account for a disproportionate share of medical expenditures, absenteeism, and presenteeism. Therefore, employers are increasingly looking to worksite wellness programs as a cost-containment strategy. Prev ... Full text Link to item Cite

Development and Validation of a Preference-Based Glaucoma Utility Instrument Using Discrete Choice Experiment.

Journal Article JAMA ophthalmology · August 2021 ImportanceA glaucoma-specific instrument for estimating utilities across the spectrum of glaucoma severity is currently lacking, hindering the assessment of the cost-effectiveness of glaucoma treatments.ObjectiveTo develop and validate th ... Full text Cite

The prevalence of perceived stigma and self-blame and their associations with depression, emotional well-being and social well-being among advanced cancer patients: evidence from the APPROACH cross-sectional study in Vietnam.

Journal Article BMC Palliat Care · July 7, 2021 BACKGROUND: There is very limited evidence on the existence of cancer-related perceived stigma and self-blame among patients with advanced cancer in Asia, and how they are associated with psychosocial outcomes. This study aimed to address the gap in the cu ... Full text Link to item Cite

Discordance between dementia caregivers' goal of care and preference for life-extending treatments.

Journal Article Age Ageing · June 28, 2021 BACKGROUND: Many older adults with severe dementia receive potentially life-extending treatments even when caregivers do not wish to prolong their life inappropriately. OBJECTIVE: Explore factors that influence caregiver preferences for potentially life-ex ... Full text Link to item Cite

Wireless Home Blood Pressure Monitoring System With Automatic Outcome-Based Feedback and Financial Incentives to Improve Blood Pressure in People With Hypertension: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Journal Article JMIR Res Protoc · June 9, 2021 BACKGROUND: Hypertension is prevalent in Singapore and is a major risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality and increased health care costs. Strategies to lower blood pressure include lifestyle modifications and home blood pressure monitoring. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Effects of an Internet-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia Program on Work Productivity: A Secondary Analysis.

Journal Article Ann Behav Med · June 2, 2021 BACKGROUND: Cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) may improve productivity along with insomnia symptoms, but the long-term duration of productivity gains is unknown. PURPOSE: In this secondary analysis, effects of Internet-delivered CBT-I on wo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Budget impact and cost-effectiveness analyses of the COBRA-BPS multicomponent hypertension management programme in rural communities in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

Journal Article Lancet Glob Health · May 2021 BACKGROUND: COBRA-BPS (Control of Blood Pressure and Risk Attenuation-Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka), a multi-component hypertension management programme that is led by community health workers, has been shown to be efficacious at reducing systolic blood ... Full text Link to item Cite

Hope, bias and survival expectations of advanced cancer patients: A cross-sectional study.

Journal Article Psychooncology · May 2021 OBJECTIVE: Many patients with advanced illness are unrealistically optimistic about their prognosis. We test for the presence of several cognitive biases, including optimism bias, illusion of superiority, self-deception, misattribution, and optimistic upda ... Full text Link to item Cite

End-of-life cost trajectories and the trade-off between treatment costs and life-extension: Findings from the Cost and Medical Care of Patients with Advanced Serious Illness (COMPASS) cohort study.

Journal Article Palliat Med · May 2021 BACKGROUND: Few studies have assessed how patient preferences influence end-of-life costs. AIM: To estimate mean monthly healthcare costs in 2019 Singapore Dollars (SGD) at five time points within the last year of life and identify how patients' preference ... Full text Link to item Cite

Public Preferences for Government Response Policies on Outbreak Control.

Journal Article Patient · May 2021 OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the extent to which public support for outbreak containment policies varies with respect to the severity of an infectious disease outbreak. METHODS: A web-enabled survey was administered to 1017 residents of S ... Full text Link to item Cite

Financial difficulties and patient-reported outcomes among patients with advanced heart failure.

Journal Article Qual Life Res · May 2021 PURPOSE: Management of congestive heart failure (CHF) is associated with high health care costs and financial difficulties for patients. We aimed to comprehensively assess the association between financial difficulties and patients' quality of life (QOL) ( ... Full text Link to item Cite

Outcomes of an Asynchronous Virtual Glaucoma Clinic in Monitoring Patients at Low Risk of Glaucoma Progression in Singapore.

Journal Article Asia Pac J Ophthalmol (Phila) · May 2021 PURPOSE: To assess the implementation outcomes of a new asynchronous virtual clinic, the Glaucoma Observation Clinic (GLOC), at the Singapore National Eye Center, in monitoring patients at low risk for glaucoma progression. METHODS: Patients with low risk ... Full text Link to item Cite

Group Medical Visit and Microfinance Intervention for Patients With Diabetes or Hypertension in Kenya.

Journal Article J Am Coll Cardiol · April 27, 2021 BACKGROUND: Incorporating social determinants of health into care delivery for chronic diseases is a priority. OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to evaluate the impact of group medical visits and/or microfinance on blood pressure reduction. METHODS: T ... Full text Link to item Cite

Perceived quality of care and its associated factors among Chinese patients with advanced cancer: findings from the APPROACH study in Beijing.

Journal Article Support Care Cancer · March 2021 PURPOSE: Patient-perceived quality of care has become an increasingly important index within the healthcare setting. We examined patient-reported overall quality of care and patient experiences in three specific domains of care (physician communication, nu ... Full text Link to item Cite

Role in decision making among congestive heart failure patients and its association with patient outcomes: a baseline analysis of the SCOPAH study.

Journal Article Patient Educ Couns · March 2021 OBJECTIVE: We investigated the predictors of patient-experienced and preferred roles for decision making, and the association between patient-experienced role in decision making and patient outcomes among congestive heart failure (HF) patients in a multi-e ... Full text Link to item Cite

A randomized controlled trial testing the effects of a positive front-of-pack label with or without a physical activity equivalent label on food purchases.

Journal Article Appetite · March 1, 2021 BACKGROUND: Positive front-of-pack (FOP) labels, including Singapore's Healthier Choice Symbol (HCS), target a subset of healthier products whose consumption is to be encouraged. However, this may inadvertently lead to excess caloric intake, which could be ... Full text Link to item Cite

Economic burden of asthma in Singapore.

Journal Article BMJ Open Respir Res · March 2021 BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Up-to-date economic burden of asthma in Singapore is currently unknown. METHODS: We quantify the per capita and total annual costs of asthma for adults and children by level of symptom control (uncontrolled, partly controlled, and ... Full text Link to item Cite

Instability in Preference for Place of Death Among Patients With Symptoms of Advanced Heart Failure.

Journal Article J Am Med Dir Assoc · February 2021 OBJECTIVES: Patient preference for place of death is an important component of advance care planning (ACP). If patients' preference for place of death changes over time, this questions the value of their documented preference. We aimed to assess the extent ... Full text Link to item Cite

Awareness of and preference for disease prognosis and participation in treatment decisions among advanced cancer patients in Myanmar: Results from the APPROACH study.

Journal Article Asia Pac J Clin Oncol · February 2021 AIM: To investigate prognostic awareness, preference for prognostic information, and perceived and preferred roles in decision making among patients with advanced cancer in Myanmar. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was administered at the Yangon General H ... Full text Link to item Cite

Financial implications of New York City's weight management initiative.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2021 PURPOSE: To estimate potential annual savings in medical expenditures from a subsidized weight management program from the NYC Government perspective. DESIGN: Longitudinal observational study. SETTING: Employees of New York City (NYC) government and enroll ... Full text Link to item Cite

The impact of seven major noncommunicable diseases on direct medical costs, absenteeism, and presenteeism in Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

Journal Article J Med Econ · 2021 AIMS: To estimate the current burden of seven major noncommunicable diseases on direct medical costs, absenteeism, and presenteeism in the six countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirat ... Full text Link to item Cite

Patient-Caregiver Treatment Preference Discordance and Its Association With Caregiving Burden and Esteem.

Journal Article Innov Aging · 2021 BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Many patient-caregiver dyads report conflicting treatment decisions regarding preferences for life extension treatments and symptom management. It is possible that this discordance will lead to negative psychological outcomes inc ... Full text Link to item Cite

Patient-Reported Roles in Decision-Making Among Asian Patients With Advanced Cancer: A Multicountry Study.

Journal Article MDM Policy Pract · 2021 Purpose. We investigated 1) perceived roles in decision-making among advanced cancer patients in 5 Asian countries 2) associations of patient characteristics with these roles, and 3) the association of perceived roles with quality of life and perceived qua ... Full text Link to item Cite

Family caregivers of advanced cancer patients: self-perceived competency and meaning-making.

Journal Article BMJ Support Palliat Care · December 2020 BACKGROUND: Family caregivers of patients with advanced cancer have been reported to provide long hours of care and be at risk for poor psychological outcomes. Although research has focused on the nature of caregiving burden, little attention has been paid ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Feasibility and Acceptability of a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy-Based Intervention for Patients With Advanced Colorectal Cancer.

Journal Article J Pain Symptom Manage · December 2020 CONTEXT: Advanced colorectal cancer and its treatment can bring about challenges associated with psychological distress. OBJECTIVES: The primary aims of this study were to examine the feasibility and acceptability of a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-ba ... Full text Link to item Cite

End of life experiences of patients with advanced cancer in Myanmar: Results from the APPROACH study.

Journal Article Asia Pac J Clin Oncol · December 2020 BACKGROUND: Access to palliative care services is essential for attaining universal health coverage for patients with a terminal cancer. Despite this, many patients with advanced cancer in low-income countries, such as Myanmar, suffer at the end of life (E ... Full text Link to item Cite

The association of self-blame with treatment preferences in a multi-country cohort of advanced cancer patients from the APPROACH study.

Journal Article J Psychosom Res · December 2020 OBJECTIVE: To understand the prevalence of behavioral and characterological self-blame and their associations with stated preferences for life-extension and the use of pain-relief medication in a multi-country cohort of advanced cancer patients. METHODS: T ... Full text Link to item Cite

Effectiveness of an innovative and comprehensive eye care model for individuals in residential care facilities: results of the residential ocular care (ROC) multicentred randomised controlled trial.

Conference Br J Ophthalmol · November 2020 BACKGROUND: To assess the clinical and patient-centred effectiveness of a novel residential ocular care (ROC) model in Australian individuals residing in residential care. METHODS: In this prospective, multicentred, randomised controlled trial conducted in ... Full text Link to item Cite

Patients' preferences and trade-off during labour epidural analgesia: A discrete choice experiment.

Journal Article J Clin Anesth · November 2020 Full text Link to item Cite

Leveraging family dynamics to increase the effectiveness of incentives for physical activity: the FIT-FAM randomized controlled trial.

Journal Article Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act · September 10, 2020 BACKGROUND: Insufficient physical activity is a global public health concern. Research indicates incentives can increase physical activity levels of children but has not tested whether incentives targeted at children can be leveraged to increase physical a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Socio-economic inequalities in suffering at the end of life among advanced cancer patients: results from the APPROACH study in five Asian countries.

Journal Article Int J Equity Health · September 10, 2020 BACKGROUND: A systematic understanding of socio-economic inequalities in end-of-life (EOL) suffering among advanced cancer patients is required to inform efforts to reduce these inequalities as part of Universal Health Coverage goals. AIMS: To assess inequ ... Full text Link to item Cite

Demand for Cancer Screening Services: Results From Randomized Controlled Discrete Choice Experiments.

Journal Article Value Health · September 2020 OBJECTIVES: Low uptake of cancer screening services is a global concern. Our aim was to understand factors that influence the screening decision, including screening and treatment subsidies and a gain-frame message designed to present screening as a win-wi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Adding Financial Incentives to Online Group-Based Behavioral Weight Control: An RCT.

Journal Article Am J Prev Med · August 2020 INTRODUCTION: Internet-delivered behavioral weight control is promising for expanding the reach and availability of weight management, but online programs produce lower weight losses than typically achieved in person. Financial incentives have been shown t ... Full text Link to item Cite

Financial difficulties are associated with greater total pain and suffering among patients with advanced cancer: results from the COMPASS study.

Journal Article Support Care Cancer · August 2020 BACKGROUND: The Universal Health Coverage goals call for access to affordable palliative care to reduce inequities in "total pain" and suffering. To achieve this, a patient-centred understanding of these inequities is required. AIM: To assess association o ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Effect of Dynamic Food Labels with Real-Time Feedback on Diet Quality: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Journal Article Nutrients · July 20, 2020 The rising prevalence of non-communicable diseases has brought attention to the importance of consuming a healthy diet. One strategy to improve diet quality is through front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labels. Taking advantage of an online grocery store, we al ... Full text Link to item Cite

Impact of a Formal Advance Care Planning Program on End-of-Life Care for Patients With Heart Failure: Results From a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Journal Article J Card Fail · July 2020 BACKGROUND: There is no evidence on effectiveness of advance care planning (ACP) among patients with heart failure (HF). We examined the effect of an ACP program in facilitating end of life (EOL) care consistent with the preferences of patients with HF (pr ... Full text Link to item Cite

Instability in End-of-Life Care Preference Among Heart Failure Patients: Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial in Singapore.

Journal Article J Gen Intern Med · July 2020 BACKGROUND: Efforts to improve quality of end-of-life (EOL) care are increasingly focused on eliciting patients' EOL preference through advance care planning (ACP). However, if patients' EOL preference changes over time and their ACP documents are not upda ... Full text Link to item Cite

Patient Preferences for Medications in Managing Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Discrete Choice Experiment.

Journal Article Value Health · July 2020 OBJECTIVES: To quantify patients' maximum acceptable risk (MAR) of urinary and genital tract infections (UGTI) in exchange for benefits associated with treatments for managing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). METHODS: In a discrete choice experiment, adult ... Full text Link to item Cite

Selective laser trabeculoplasty versus topical medication as initial glaucoma treatment: the glaucoma initial treatment study randomised clinical trial.

Journal Article Br J Ophthalmol · June 2020 BACKGROUND/AIMS: To determine if selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) is superior to topical medication as a first-line treatment for glaucoma on quality of life (QoL) and clinical outcomes. METHODS: In this international, longitudinal, multisite randomis ... Full text Link to item Cite

Artificial intelligence for teleophthalmology-based diabetic retinopathy screening in a national programme: an economic analysis modelling study.

Journal Article Lancet Digit Health · May 2020 BACKGROUND: Deep learning is a novel machine learning technique that has been shown to be as effective as human graders in detecting diabetic retinopathy from fundus photographs. We used a cost-minimisation analysis to evaluate the potential savings of two ... Full text Link to item Cite

The effect of implicit and explicit taxes on the purchasing of 'high-in-calorie' products: A randomized controlled trial.

Journal Article Econ Hum Biol · May 2020 Public health taxes on less healthy food and beverage products have been shown to be effective in various settings. However, it is unclear if observed reductions in the quantity of taxed products purchased is a result of price increases due to the tax or t ... Full text Link to item Cite

Strategies to improve survival outcomes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) given a fixed budget: A simulation study.

Journal Article Resuscitation · April 2020 BACKGROUND: Our study aimed to identify a strategy that maximizes survival upon hospital discharge or 30-days post out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in Singapore for fixed investments of S$1, S$5, or S$10 million. Four strategies were compared: (1) no ... Full text Link to item Cite

Randomized trial evaluating the effectiveness of within versus across-category front-of-package lower-calorie labelling on food demand.

Journal Article BMC Public Health · March 12, 2020 BACKGROUND: Several front-of-pack (FOP) labels identify healthier options by comparing foods within product categories. Alternative approaches label healthier options by comparing across categories. Which approach is superior remains unknown. The objective ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cost-effectiveness of Intravitreal Ranibizumab With Verteporfin Photodynamic Therapy Compared With Ranibizumab Monotherapy for Patients With Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy.

Journal Article JAMA Ophthalmol · March 1, 2020 IMPORTANCE: The EVEREST II trial showed that for patients with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV), intravitreal ranibizumab in combination with verteporfin photodynamic therapy improves visual acuity relative to ranibizumab monotherapy. However, wheth ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Community-Based Intervention for Managing Hypertension in Rural South Asia.

Journal Article N Engl J Med · February 20, 2020 BACKGROUND: The burden of hypertension is escalating, and control rates are poor in low- and middle-income countries. Cardiovascular mortality is high in rural areas. METHODS: We conducted a cluster-randomized, controlled trial in rural districts in Bangla ... Full text Link to item Cite

Is Less Sedentary Behavior, More Physical Activity, or Higher Fitness Associated with Sleep Quality? A Cross-Sectional Study in Singapore.

Journal Article Int J Environ Res Public Health · February 19, 2020 OBJECTIVES: To examine the independent, joint, and fully combined associations of sedentary behavior (SB), moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) with the odds of poor sleep quality (SQ). METHODS: We performed a ... Full text Link to item Cite

A feasible and acceptable multicultural psychosocial intervention targeting symptom management in the context of advanced breast cancer.

Journal Article Psychooncology · February 2020 OBJECTIVE: Advanced breast cancer patients around the world experience high symptom burden (ie, distress, pain, and fatigue) and are in need of psychosocial interventions that target symptom management. This study examined the feasibility, acceptability, a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Correction to: Health-related quality of life and its socio-economic and cultural predictors among advanced cancer patients: evidence from the APPROACH cross-sectional survey in Hyderabad-India.

Journal Article BMC Palliat Care · January 23, 2020 Following publication of the original article [1], the corresponding author reported an error on the name of the fourth author. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Beyond cost-effectiveness: A five-step framework for appraising the value of health technologies in Asia-Pacific.

Journal Article Int J Health Plann Manage · January 2020 Given resource constraints and the potential for increasingly high-cost, cost-effective medicines to become available, policymakers require strategies that go beyond cost-effectiveness when making resource allocation decisions. This manuscript presents a f ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Prospective Longitudinal Study of Caregivers of Community Dwelling Persons with Severe Dementia (PISCES): Study Protocol.

Journal Article J Alzheimers Dis · 2020 Although many persons with severe dementia (PWSDs) are cared for at home by their family caregivers, few studies have assessed end of life (EOL) care experiences of PWSDs. We present the protocol for the PISCES study (Panel study Investigating Status of Co ... Full text Link to item Cite

Economic burden of migraine in Singapore

Journal Article Cephalalgia Reports · January 1, 2020 Objective: Despite the high prevalence and disabling nature of migraine, studies evaluating its economic burden in Singapore remain scant. This study aims to quantify the per capita and aggregate economic cost of episodic migraine (EM; ≤14 monthly headache ... Full text Cite

Using Adherence-Contingent Rebates on Chronic Disease Treatment Costs to Promote Medication Adherence: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Journal Article Appl Health Econ Health Policy · December 2019 BACKGROUND: Poor adherence to medications is a global public health concern with substantial health and cost implications, especially for chronic conditions. In the USA, poor adherence is estimated to cause 125,000 deaths and cost $US100 billion annually. ... Full text Link to item Cite

TRIal to slow the Progression Of Diabetes (TRIPOD): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial using wireless technology and incentives.

Journal Article Trials · November 28, 2019 BACKGROUND: The outcomes for those with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Singapore are poor. In this TRIal to slow the Progression Of Diabetes (TRIPOD), we will evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a comprehensive diabetes management pack ... Full text Link to item Cite

Health-related quality of life and its socio-economic and cultural predictors among advanced cancer patients: evidence from the APPROACH cross-sectional survey in Hyderabad-India.

Journal Article BMC Palliat Care · November 5, 2019 BACKGROUND: Patients with advanced cancer often experience poor health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) due to cancer and treatment-related side-effects. With India's palliative care landscape in its infancy, there is a concern that advanced cancer patients ... Full text Link to item Cite

Community Health Workers Improve Linkage to Hypertension Care in Western Kenya.

Journal Article J Am Coll Cardiol · October 15, 2019 BACKGROUND: Elevated blood pressure (BP) is the leading global risk factor for mortality. Delay in seeking hypertension care is associated with increased mortality. OBJECTIVES: This study investigated whether community health workers, equipped with behavio ... Full text Link to item Cite

Perspectives on decision making amongst older people with end-stage renal disease and caregivers in Singapore: A qualitative study.

Journal Article Health Expect · October 2019 BACKGROUND: End-stage renal disease (ESRD) is increasing both globally and in Asia. Singapore has the fifth highest incidence of ESRD worldwide, a trend that is predicted to rise. Older patients with ESRD are faced with a choice of haemodialysis, peritonea ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cost-effectiveness and budget impact of the community-based management of hypertension in Nepal study (COBIN): a retrospective analysis.

Journal Article Lancet Glob Health · October 2019 BACKGROUND: The greatest risk factor for cardiovascular disease is hypertension, which can be alleviated via diet, exercise, and adherence to medication. Yet, blood pressure control in Nepal is inadequate, which is partly hindered by a lack of evidence-bas ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluating the Relative Effectiveness of the Multiple Traffic Light and Nutri-Score Front of Package Nutrition Labels.

Journal Article Nutrients · September 17, 2019 The objective of this trial was to test two promising front-of-pack nutrition labels, 1) the United Kingdom's Multiple Traffic Lights (MTL) label and 2) France's Nutri-Score (NS), relative to a no-label control. We hypothesized that both labels would impro ... Full text Link to item Cite

Strengthening Referral Networks for Management of Hypertension Across the Health System (STRENGTHS) in western Kenya: a study protocol of a cluster randomized trial.

Journal Article Trials · September 9, 2019 BACKGROUND: Hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), yet treatment and control rates for hypertension are very low in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Lack of effective referral networks between different levels of the ... Full text Link to item Cite

Biopsychosocial experiences and coping strategies of elderly ESRD patients: a qualitative study to inform the development of more holistic and person-centred health services in Singapore.

Journal Article BMC Public Health · August 14, 2019 BACKGROUND: As the incidence and prevalence rates of end stage renal disease (ESRD) rise globally, a disproportionate increase has been observed in the elderly population. Singapore has the fifth highest incidence of treated ESRD worldwide, with the upward ... Full text Link to item Cite

Palliative Care Awareness Among Advanced Cancer Patients and Their Family Caregivers in Singapore.

Journal Article Ann Acad Med Singap · August 2019 INTRODUCTION: We investigated the awareness of palliative care (PC) services in advanced cancer patients and their family caregivers and whether negative perceptions was a possible barrier to PC utilisation in Singapore. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients wit ... Link to item Cite

Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of incentives as a tool for prevention of non-communicable diseases: A systematic review.

Journal Article Soc Sci Med · July 2019 The rising epidemic of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) poses substantial health and economic challenges to both individuals and society. Application of incentive-based strategies based on traditional and behavioural economic theory has emerged as a potent ... Full text Link to item Cite

Determinants of regret in elderly dialysis patients.

Journal Article Nephrology (Carlton) · June 2019 AIMS: In Singapore, most elderly end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients choose dialysis over palliative management. However, dialysis may not be the optimal treatment option given only moderate survival benefits and high costs and treatment burden compare ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Mobile Lifestyle Management Program (GlycoLeap) for People With Type 2 Diabetes: Single-Arm Feasibility Study.

Journal Article JMIR Mhealth Uhealth · May 24, 2019 BACKGROUND: Singapore's current prevalence of diabetes exceeds 13.6%. Although lifestyle modification can be effective for reducing the risks for complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), traditional lifestyle interventions are often difficult to a ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Balance protocol: a pragmatic weight gain prevention randomized controlled trial for medically vulnerable patients within primary care.

Journal Article BMC Public Health · May 17, 2019 BACKGROUND: For patients with obesity who are not ready for or experience barriers to weight loss, clinical practice guidelines recommend provider counseling on preventing further weight gain as a first-line treatment approach. Unfortunately, evidence-base ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

A Digital Behavioral Weight Gain Prevention Intervention in Primary Care Practice: Cost and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis.

Journal Article J Med Internet Res · May 17, 2019 BACKGROUND: Obesity is one of the largest drivers of health care spending but nearly half of the population with obesity demonstrate suboptimal readiness for weight loss treatment. Black women are disproportionately likely to have both obesity and limited ... Full text Link to item Cite

Incremental cost-effectiveness of evidence-based non-surgical weight loss strategies.

Journal Article Clin Obes · April 2019 Recent medical advancements have led to new modes of treatment for non-surgical weight loss, including several new medications. Our aim was to conduct an incremental cost-effectiveness analysis for all commercially available, evidence-based non-surgical we ... Full text Link to item Cite

Efficacy and Safety of Massage for Osteoarthritis of the Knee: a Randomized Clinical Trial.

Journal Article J Gen Intern Med · March 2019 BACKGROUND: Current treatment options for knee osteoarthritis have limited effectiveness and potentially adverse side effects. Massage may offer a safe and effective complement to the management of knee osteoarthritis. OBJECTIVE: Examine effects of whole-b ... Full text Link to item Cite

Family dynamics in a multi-ethnic Asian society: comparison of elderly CKD patients and their family caregivers experience with medical decision making for managing end stage kidney disease.

Journal Article BMC Nephrol · March 1, 2019 BACKGROUND: Elderly end stage kidney patients face a decision concerning whether or not to initiate dialysis. In Asia, this decision is highly influenced by family caregivers. The objective of this paper was to understand patients' experience with and pref ... Full text Link to item Cite

Pilot randomized controlled trial testing the influence of front-of-pack sugar warning labels on food demand.

Journal Article BMC Public Health · February 7, 2019 BACKGROUND: Front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition warning labels to identify potentially harmful foods/beverages have recently been considered in Singapore. The objective of this study was to pilot test two promising FOP warning labels intended to reduce purchases ... Full text Link to item Cite

Early childcare enrollment and childhood wheezing phenotypes.

Journal Article Pediatr Allergy Immunol · February 2019 Full text Link to item Cite

Scanner Data-Based Panel Price Indexes.

Journal Article Am J Agric Econ · January 2019 We construct panel price indexes using retail scanner data that allow comparisons of consumption cost across space and time. Two types of panel indexes are examined: the rolling-window panel extensions of the multilateral Cave-Christensen-Diewert (CCD) ind ... Full text Link to item Cite

Government pharmaceutical pricing strategies in the Asia-Pacific region: an overview.

Journal Article J Mark Access Health Policy · 2019 Background and objectives: Governments in Asia Pacific (APAC) are increasingly using pharmaceutical pricing strategies to contain rising healthcare costs. The objective of this narrative review is to discuss formal pricing strategies for reimbursed prescri ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cognitive Bias: The Downside of Shared Decision Making.

Journal Article JCO Clin Cancer Inform · December 2018 This narrative review presents theoretical and empirical evidence of common cognitive biases that are likely to influence treatment choices of patients with cancer and other illnesses. We present an overview of common cognitive biases that result from how ... Full text Link to item Cite

Improving eye care in residential aged care facilities using the Residential Ocular Care (ROC) model: study protocol for a multicentered, prospective, customized, and cluster randomized controlled trial in Australia.

Journal Article Trials · November 26, 2018 BACKGROUND: Older adults in residential aged care facilities have unnecessarily high levels of vision impairment (VI) which are largely treatable or correctable. However, no current comprehensive eye health service model exists in this setting in Australia ... Full text Link to item Cite

Healthcare utilization and cost trajectories post-stroke: role of caregiver and stroke factors.

Journal Article BMC Health Serv Res · November 22, 2018 BACKGROUND: It is essential to study post-stroke healthcare utilization trajectories from a stroke patient caregiver dyadic perspective to improve healthcare delivery, practices and eventually improve long-term outcomes for stroke patients. However, litera ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Can caregivers report their care recipients' post-stroke hospitalizations and outpatient visits accurately? Findings of an Asian prospective stroke cohort.

Journal Article BMC Health Serv Res · October 25, 2018 BACKGROUND: Health services research aimed at understanding service use and improving resource allocation often relies on collecting subjectively reported or proxy-reported healthcare service utilization (HSU) data. It is important to know the discrepancie ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Lancet Commission on the Value of Death.

Journal Article Lancet · October 13, 2018 Full text Link to item Cite

Associations between understanding of current treatment intent, communication with healthcare providers, preferences for invasive life-sustaining interventions and decisional conflict: results from a survey of patients with advanced heart failure in Singapore.

Journal Article BMJ Open · September 19, 2018 OBJECTIVES: To make informed choices about use of future invasive life-sustaining interventions (ILSI), patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) need to correctly understand the intent of their current treatments. However, healthcare providers may be w ... Full text Link to item Cite

Study protocol for a cohort study of patients with advanced heart failure in Singapore.

Journal Article BMJ Open · September 17, 2018 INTRODUCTIO: Understanding the symptom and health expenditure burden among patients with advanced congestive heart failure (CHF) and their family caregivers is essential to reform policy and practice needed to provide quality care to these patients at affo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Impact of tax and subsidy framed messages on high- and lower-sugar beverages sold in vending machines: a randomized crossover trial.

Journal Article Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act · August 13, 2018 OBJECTIVE: Framing of fiscal incentives has been suggested to be important in influencing purchase decisions. We aimed to examine the effect of framing a modest price difference between high- and lower-sugar beverages as a tax or a subsidy respectively, us ... Full text Link to item Cite

Understanding factors that influence the demand for dialysis among elderly in a multi-ethnic Asian society.

Journal Article Health Policy · August 2018 BACKGROUND: Despite literature suggesting conservative management (CM) is a viable option for elderly comorbid ESRD patients, the vast majority in Singapore receive dialysis. We hypothesized that the high demand for dialysis is driven by 1) lack of knowled ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cost of Medical Care of Patients with Advanced Serious Illness in Singapore (COMPASS): prospective cohort study protocol.

Journal Article BMC Cancer · April 23, 2018 BACKGROUND: Advanced cancer significantly impacts quality of life of patients and families as they cope with symptom burden, treatment decision-making, uncertainty and costs of treatment. In Singapore, information about the experiences of advanced cancer p ... Full text Link to item Cite

Identifying the effect of shelf nutrition labels on consumer purchases: results of a natural experiment and consumer survey.

Journal Article Am J Clin Nutr · April 1, 2018 BACKGROUND: NuVal, developed by NuVal, LLC, is a shelf nutrition label that rates the nutritional quality of foods on a scale of 1 (worst) to 100 (best). OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to explore the impact of the NuVal labels on food-purchasin ... Full text Link to item Cite

The influence of a consumer-wearable activity tracker on sedentary time and prolonged sedentary bouts: secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial.

Journal Article BMC Res Notes · March 22, 2018 OBJECTIVE: A recent meta-analysis surmised pedometers were a useful panacea to independently reduce sedentary time (ST). To further test and expand on this deduction, we analyzed the ability of a consumer-wearable activity tracker to reduce ST and prolonge ... Full text Link to item Cite

Management of hypertension and multiple risk factors to enhance cardiovascular health in Singapore: The SingHypertension cluster randomized trial.

Journal Article Trials · March 14, 2018 BACKGROUND: Hypertension is a serious public health problem in Singapore and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD) with considerable implications for health-care resources. The goal of the trial is to comp ... Full text Link to item Cite

Public preferences for interventions to prevent emerging infectious disease threats: a discrete choice experiment.

Journal Article BMJ Open · February 16, 2018 OBJECTIVE: When faced with an emergent epidemic with high mortality and morbidity potential, policy makers must decide what public health interventions to deploy at different stages of the outbreak. However, almost nothing is known about how the public vie ... Full text Link to item Cite

Development and Validation of a Deep Learning System for Diabetic Retinopathy and Related Eye Diseases Using Retinal Images From Multiethnic Populations With Diabetes.

Journal Article JAMA · December 12, 2017 IMPORTANCE: A deep learning system (DLS) is a machine learning technology with potential for screening diabetic retinopathy and related eye diseases. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the performance of a DLS in detecting referable diabetic retinopathy, vision-threat ... Full text Link to item Cite

Positive maternal mental health during pregnancy associated with specific forms of adaptive development in early childhood: Evidence from a longitudinal study.

Journal Article Dev Psychopathol · December 2017 The quality of prenatal maternal mental health, from psychological stress and depressive symptoms to anxiety and other nonpsychotic mental disorders, profoundly affects fetal neurodevelopment. Despite the evidence for the influence of positive mental well- ... Full text Link to item Cite

Trial to Incentivise Adherence for Diabetes (TRIAD): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

Journal Article Trials · November 17, 2017 BACKGROUND: Many people with diabetes have suboptimal glycaemic control due to not being adherent to their treatment regimen. Behavioural economic theory suggests that the lack of adherence results from the disconnect between the timing of when costs and b ... Full text Link to item Cite

Incremental cost-effectiveness of algorithm-driven genetic testing versus no testing for Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young (MODY) in Singapore.

Conference J Med Genet · November 2017 BACKGROUND: Offering genetic testing for Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young (MODY) to all young patients with type 2 diabetes has been shown to be not cost-effective. This study tests whether a novel algorithm-driven genetic testing strategy for MODY is ... Full text Link to item Cite

Disparity Between Indications for and Utilization of Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators in Asian Patients With Heart Failure.

Journal Article Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes · November 2017 BACKGROUND: Implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) are lifesaving devices for patients with heart failure (HF) and reduced ejection fraction. However, utilization and determinants of ICD insertion in Asia are poorly defined. We determined the utili ... Full text Link to item Cite

A comparison of attitudes toward length and quality of life between community-dwelling older adults and patients with advanced cancer.

Journal Article Psychooncology · October 2017 OBJECTIVE: Applying prospect theory to end-of-life decision making, we hypothesize that community-dwelling older adults (CDOAs) will be relatively less inclined towards extending length over improving quality of life compared with patients. We also hypothe ... Full text Link to item Cite

Stated Uptake of Physical Activity Rewards Programmes Among Active and Insufficiently Active Full-Time Employees.

Journal Article Appl Health Econ Health Policy · October 2017 BACKGROUND: Employers are increasingly relying on rewards programmes in an effort to promote greater levels of activity among employees; however, if enrolment in these programmes is dominated by active employees, then they are unlikely to be a good use of ... Full text Link to item Cite

Efficacy of a Community- Versus Primary Care-Centered Program for Childhood Obesity: TX CORD RCT.

Journal Article Obesity (Silver Spring) · September 2017 OBJECTIVE: This randomized controlled trial was conducted to determine comparative efficacy of a 12-month community-centered weight management program (MEND2-5 for ages 2-5 or MEND/CATCH6-12 for ages 6-12) against a primary care-centered program (Next Step ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cost-effectiveness of Obesity Interventions: Will We Know It When We See It?

Journal Article Pediatrics · September 2017 Full text Link to item Cite

Measuring Socioeconomic Inequality in Obesity: Looking Beyond the Obesity Threshold.

Journal Article Health Econ · August 2017 We combine two of the most widely used measures in the inequality and poverty literature, the concentration index and Foster-Greer-Thorbecke metric to the analysis of socioeconomic inequality in obesity. This enables us to describe socioeconomic inequality ... Full text Link to item Cite

Is bronchial thermoplasty cost-effective as treatment for problematic asthma patients? Singapore's perspective on a global model.

Journal Article Respirology · August 2017 BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Bronchial thermoplasty (BT) has been shown to be effective at reducing asthma exacerbations and improving asthma control for patients with severe persistent asthma but it is also expensive. Evidence on its cost-effectiveness is li ... Full text Link to item Cite

Applying economic incentives to increase effectiveness of an outpatient weight loss program (TRIO) - A randomized controlled trial.

Journal Article Soc Sci Med · July 2017 The prevalence of overweight and obesity has more than doubled in the past three decades, leading to rising rates of non-communicable diseases. This study tests whether adding a payment/rewards (term reward) program to an existing evidence-based weight los ... Full text Link to item Cite

Multicomponent intervention versus usual care for management of hypertension in rural Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka: study protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial.

Journal Article Trials · June 12, 2017 BACKGROUND: High blood pressure (BP) is the leading attributable risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). In rural South Asia, hypertension continues to be a significant public health issue with sub-optimal BP control rates. The goal of the trial is to compa ... Full text Link to item Cite

Bridging Income Generation with Group Integrated Care for cardiovascular risk reduction: Rationale and design of the BIGPIC study.

Journal Article Am Heart J · June 2017 BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality worldwide, with >80% of CVD deaths occurring in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Diabetes mellitus and pre-diabetes are risk factors for CVD, and CVD is the major cause of m ... Full text Link to item Cite

Trade-offs between civil liberties and national security: A discrete choice experiment

Journal Article Contemporary Economic Policy · April 1, 2017 We explore differences in perception of national security policies between selfidentified liberals, moderates, and conservatives from a national sample of U.S. adults. Using a discrete choice experiment, we also quantify each group’s willingness to trade o ... Full text Cite

Predicted patient demand for a new delivery system for glaucoma medicine.

Journal Article Medicine (Baltimore) · April 2017 Sustained-release drug delivery systems that replace the need for daily glaucoma medications will improve outcomes for those who are nonadherent and reduce the inconvenience of having to take medications on a recurring basis.The objective is to estimate up ... Full text Link to item Cite

Developing consensus measures for global programs: lessons from the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases Hypertension research program.

Journal Article Global Health · March 15, 2017 BACKGROUND: The imperative to improve global health has prompted transnational research partnerships to investigate common health issues on a larger scale. The Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD) is an alliance of national research funding agencies ... Full text Link to item Cite

Identifying Factors That Influence Physicians' Recommendations for Dialysis and Conservative Management in Indonesia.

Journal Article Kidney Int Rep · March 2017 INTRODUCTION: For elderly end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients with multiple comorbidities, dialysis may offer little survival benefit compared to conservative management (CM). Yet, many elderly ESRD patients undergo dialysis, partly due to physicians' ... Full text Link to item Cite

Parents' views on their children's use of eye drops and willingness to accept a new sustained-release subconjunctival injection.

Journal Article Clin Ophthalmol · 2017 AIM: The objectives of this study were to explore parents' views about their children's use of regular eye drops and whether they would consider a sustained-release subconjunctival injection as a replacement for daily drops. METHODS: A survey was conducted ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cost-effectiveness of a National Telemedicine Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Program in Singapore.

Journal Article Ophthalmology · December 2016 PURPOSE: To determine the incremental cost-effectiveness of a new telemedicine technician-based assessment relative to an existing model of family physician (FP)-based assessment of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in Singapore from the health system and societal ... Full text Link to item Cite

Effectiveness of activity trackers with and without incentives to increase physical activity (TRIPPA): a randomised controlled trial.

Journal Article Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol · December 2016 BACKGROUND: Despite the increasing popularity of activity trackers, little evidence exists that they can improve health outcomes. We aimed to investigate whether use of activity trackers, alone or in combination with cash incentives or charitable donations ... Full text Link to item Cite

Tobacco smoke exposure and respiratory morbidity in young children.

Journal Article Tob Control · December 2016 OBJECTIVE: Secondhand smoke exposure is a potentially preventable cause of significant respiratory morbidity in young children. Our study aimed to quantify respiratory morbidity in young children exposed to secondhand smoke to identify potentially modifiab ... Full text Link to item Cite

Maternal and infant correlates of maternal feeding beliefs and practices in a multi-ethnic Asian population: the GUSTO (Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes) study.

Journal Article Public Health Nutr · October 2016 OBJECTIVE: Little is known about the influences of maternal and infant correlates on maternal feeding beliefs and practices in the first 2 years of life, despite its important role in early obesogenic eating behaviours and weight gain. DESIGN: Cross-sectio ... Full text Link to item Cite

The economic burden of physical inactivity: a global analysis of major non-communicable diseases.

Journal Article Lancet · September 24, 2016 BACKGROUND: The pandemic of physical inactivity is associated with a range of chronic diseases and early deaths. Despite the well documented disease burden, the economic burden of physical inactivity remains unquantified at the global level. A better under ... Full text Link to item Cite

Control of blood pressure and risk attenuation: a public health intervention in rural Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka: feasibility trial results.

Journal Article J Hypertens · September 2016 BACKGROUND: High blood pressure (BP) is the leading attributable risk for cardiovascular disease globally. There is little information on effective and sustainable public health system strategies for managing hypertension in South Asian countries. We condu ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Comparison of Practices During the Confinement Period among Chinese, Malay, and Indian Mothers in Singapore.

Journal Article Birth · September 2016 BACKGROUND: Confinement (restrictions placed on diet and practices during the month right after delivery) represents a key feature of Asian populations. Few studies, however, have focused specifically on ethnic differences in confinement practices. This st ... Full text Link to item Cite

Effects of nutrient profiling and price changes based on NuVal® scores on food purchasing in an online experimental supermarket.

Journal Article Public Health Nutr · August 2016 OBJECTIVE: The goal of the present study was to apply experimental economic methods in an online supermarket to examine the effects of nutrient profiling, and differential pricing based on the nutrient profile, on the overall diet quality, energy and macro ... Full text Link to item Cite

Study on Incentives for Glaucoma Medication Adherence (SIGMA): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial to increase glaucoma medication adherence using value pricing.

Journal Article Trials · July 15, 2016 BACKGROUND: Many glaucoma patients do not adhere to their medication regimens because they fail to internalize the (health) costs of non-adherence, which may not occur until years or decades later. Behavioural economic theory suggests that adherence rates ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases Supports 15 Major Studies in Hypertension Prevention and Control in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.

Journal Article J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich) · July 2016 Full text Link to item Cite

Impact of advance care planning on the care of patients with heart failure: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Journal Article Trials · June 10, 2016 BACKGROUND: Despite the promise and popularity of advance care planning, there is insufficient evidence that advance care planning helps patients to meet their end-of-life care preferences, especially in Asian settings. Thus, the proposed study aims to ass ... Full text Link to item Cite

Living with heart failure: Perspectives of patients from Singapore

Journal Article Proceedings of Singapore Healthcare · June 1, 2016 Introduction: Heart failure is a progressive and often incurable condition associated with a poor quality of life. The aim of this study was to understand the experiences and preferences regarding care, communication and decision-making among patients livi ... Full text Cite

Incremental cost-utility of sevelamer relative to calcium carbonate for treatment of hyperphosphatemia among pre-dialysis chronic kidney disease patients.

Journal Article BMC Nephrol · April 28, 2016 BACKGROUND: Sevelamer is an alternative to calcium carbonate for the treatment of hyperphosphatemia among non-dialysis dependent patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Although some studies show that it may reduce mortality and delay the onset of dial ... Full text Link to item Cite

Are Efficient Designs Used in Discrete Choice Experiments Too Difficult for Some Respondents? A Case Study Eliciting Preferences for End-of-Life Care.

Journal Article Pharmacoeconomics · March 2016 BACKGROUND: Although efficient designs have sample size advantages for discrete choice experiments (DCEs), it has been hypothesised that they may result in biased estimates owing to some respondents using simplistic heuristics. OBJECTIVES: The main objecti ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cost Minimization Analysis of Precut Cornea Grafts in Descemet Stripping Automated Endothelial Keratoplasty.

Journal Article Medicine (Baltimore) · February 2016 Descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK) is the most common corneal transplant procedure. A key step in the procedure is preparing the donor cornea for transplantation. This can be accomplished via 1 of 3 alternatives: surgeon cuts the ... Full text Link to item Cite

Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus Screening Strategies in Singapore.

Journal Article Asia Pac J Public Health · January 2016 The objective of this study was to conduct an incremental cost-effectiveness analysis from the payer's perspective in Singapore of 3 gestational diabetes mellitus screening strategies: universal, targeted, or no screening. A decision tree model assessed th ... Full text Link to item Cite

Impact of Treatment Subsidies and Cash Payouts on Treatment Choices at the End of Life.

Journal Article Value Health · 2016 OBJECTIVES: To examine the extent to which financial assistance, in the form of subsidies for life-extending treatments (LETs) or cash payouts, distorts the demand for end-of-life treatments. METHODS: A discrete choice experiment was administered to 290 pa ... Full text Link to item Cite

Barriers to breast and cervical cancer screening in Singapore: A mixed methods analysis

Journal Article Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention · January 1, 2016 Background: In order to increase breast and cervical cancer screening uptake in Singapore, women's perceived barriers to screening need to be identified and overcome. Using data from both focus groups and surveys, we aimed to assess perceived barriers and ... Cite

Measuring High-Risk Patients' Preferences for Pharmacogenetic Testing to Reduce Severe Adverse Drug Reaction: A Discrete Choice Experiment.

Journal Article Value Health · 2016 OBJECTIVES: To investigate patient preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for a genetic test that can reduce the risk of life-threatening adverse drug reactions (ADRs). We hypothesize that test features (risk of developing the adverse reaction with and w ... Full text Link to item Cite

Barriers to Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening in Singapore: a Mixed Methods Analysis.

Journal Article Asian Pac J Cancer Prev · 2016 BACKGROUND: In order to increase breast and cervical cancer screening uptake in Singapore, women's perceived barriers to screening need to be identified and overcome. Using data from both focus groups and surveys, we aimed to assess perceived barriers and ... Link to item Cite

A Vision "Bolt-On" Item Could Increase the Discriminatory Power of the EQ-5D Index Score.

Journal Article Value Health · December 2015 BACKGROUND: Recently, a vision "bolt-on" EuroQol five-dimensional questionnaire (EQ-5D) was developed and tentative utility values (i.e., a "value set") for this new descriptive system were estimated. OBJECTIVES: To compare the discriminatory power of this ... Full text Link to item Cite

Incidence and lifetime costs of injuries in the United States

Journal Article Injury Prevention · December 1, 2015 Background Standardized methodologies for assessing economic burden of injury at the national or international level do not exist. Objective To measure national incidence, medical costs, and productivity losses of medically treated injuries using the most ... Full text Cite

Experimental analysis of the effect of taxes and subsides on calories purchased in an on-line supermarket.

Journal Article Appetite · December 2015 Taxes and subsidies are a public health approach to improving nutrient quality of food purchases. While taxes or subsidies influence purchasing, it is unclear whether they influence total energy or overall diet quality of foods purchased. Using a within su ... Full text Link to item Cite

Behaviour change strategies for reducing blood pressure-related disease burden: findings from a global implementation research programme.

Journal Article Implement Sci · November 9, 2015 BACKGROUND: The Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases comprises the majority of the world's public research funding agencies. It is focussed on implementation research to tackle the burden of chronic diseases in low- and middle-income countries and amongst ... Full text Link to item Cite

Preferences for end-of-life care among community-dwelling older adults and patients with advanced cancer: A discrete choice experiment.

Journal Article Health Policy · November 2015 Singapore is in the midst of several healthcare reforms in efforts to finance and deliver health services for a rapidly aging population. The primary focus of these reforms is to make healthcare services, including those at the end of life (EOL), affordabl ... Full text Link to item Cite

Consumption Of Specific Foods And Beverages And Excess Weight Gain Among Children And Adolescents.

Journal Article Health Aff (Millwood) · November 2015 Efforts are under way to identify successful strategies to reduce long-term childhood obesity risk, such as ways to improve diet quality. To identify foods and beverages associated with excess weight gain, we used cohort data from the Avon Longitudinal Stu ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cost-effectiveness analysis of genotyping for HLA-B*5801 and an enhanced safety program in gout patients starting allopurinol in Singapore.

Journal Article Pharmacogenomics · November 2015 AIMS: Allopurinol is an efficacious urate-lowering therapy (ULT), but is associated with rare serious adverse drug reactions of Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), with higher risk among HLA-B*5801 carriers. We assessed the ... Full text Link to item Cite

Variation in physician recommendations, knowledge and perceived roles regarding provision of end-of-life care.

Journal Article BMC Palliat Care · October 26, 2015 BACKGROUND: There is high variability in end-of-life (EOL) treatments. Some of this could be due to differences in physician treatment recommendations, their knowledge/attitude regarding palliative care, and their perceived roles in treating patients with ... Full text Link to item Cite

Prospective associations of appetitive traits at 3 and 12 months of age with body mass index and weight gain in the first 2 years of life.

Journal Article BMC Pediatr · October 12, 2015 BACKGROUND: Appetitive traits in childhood such as food responsiveness and enjoyment of food have been associated with body mass index (BMI) in later childhood. However, data on appetitive traits during infancy in relation to BMI in later childhood are spa ... Full text Link to item Cite

Comparison of preferences for end-of-life care among patients with advanced cancer and their caregivers: A discrete choice experiment.

Journal Article Palliat Med · October 2015 BACKGROUND: Patients with advanced cancer often have to make difficult decisions, such as how much to spend on moderately life-extending treatments. This and other end-of-life decisions are also influenced by their informal caregivers. Understanding the re ... Full text Link to item Cite

Comparing the effectiveness of selective laser trabeculoplasty with topical medication as initial treatment (the Glaucoma Initial Treatment Study): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

Journal Article Trials · September 11, 2015 BACKGROUND: Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the world. Estimated to affect 60 million people worldwide, this figure is expected to rise to 80 million by 2020. Untreated, glaucoma leads to visual decay and eventually to blindness, ... Full text Link to item Cite

Factors Contributing to Inappropriate Visits of Frequent Attenders and Their Economic Effects at an Emergency Department in Singapore.

Conference Acad Emerg Med · September 2015 OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to determine which factors contribute to frequent visits at the emergency department (ED) and what proportion were inappropriate in comparison with nonfrequent visits. METHODS: This study was a retrospective, case-control study ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Qsymia for Weight Loss.

Journal Article Pharmacoeconomics · July 2015 BACKGROUND: Phase 3 clinical trial results reveal that Qsymia is a clinically effective long-term treatment for obesity, but whether this treatment is cost-effective compared to a diet and lifestyle intervention has yet to be explored. OBJECTIVE: To quanti ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cost-effectiveness of alternative strategies for interferon-γ release assays and tuberculin skin test in tuberculous uveitis.

Journal Article Br J Ophthalmol · July 2015 BACKGROUND: Although tuberculous uveitis remains a major cause of ocular morbidity in the developing world, there is no consensus on which diagnostic test or testing strategy is the most cost effective. In this study we carried out a cost-effectiveness ana ... Full text Link to item Cite

Interventional strategies associated with improvements in survival for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in Singapore over 10 years.

Journal Article Resuscitation · April 2015 AIM: We aim to study if there has been an improvement in survival for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) in Singapore, the effects of various interventional strategies over the past 10 years, and identify strategies that contributed to improved survival ... Full text Link to item Cite

Maternal PUFA status and offspring allergic diseases up to the age of 18 months.

Journal Article Br J Nutr · March 28, 2015 Studies have suggested that maternal PUFA status during pregnancy may influence early childhood allergic diseases, although findings are inconsistent. We examined the relationship between maternal PUFA status and risk of allergic diseases in early childhoo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Design and baseline characteristics of participants in the TRial of Economic Incentives to Promote Physical Activity (TRIPPA): a randomized controlled trial of a six month pedometer program with financial incentives.

Journal Article Contemp Clin Trials · March 2015 Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are emerging as the predominant global health challenge of this century. Physical inactivity is one of the primary risk factors for NCDs. Therefore, increasing physical activity levels is a public health imperative. The arr ... Full text Link to item Cite

Incorporating primary and secondary prevention approaches to address childhood obesity prevention and treatment in a low-income, ethnically diverse population: study design and demographic data from the Texas Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration (TX CORD) study.

Journal Article Child Obes · February 2015 BACKGROUND: There is consensus that development and evaluation of a systems-oriented approach for child obesity prevention and treatment that includes both primary and secondary prevention efforts is needed. This article describes the study design and base ... Full text Link to item Cite

'Obesity paradox' misunderstands the biology of optimal weight throughout the life cycle.

Journal Article Int J Obes (Lond) · January 2015 The 'obesity paradox' refers to observations that run counter to the thesis that normal weight (BMI 18.5-24.9 g/m(2)) provides the lowest mortality and higher weight is associated with greater mortality. We argue that the weight of lowest mortality is infl ... Full text Link to item Cite

A practical model for economic evaluation of tissue-engineered therapies.

Journal Article Wiley Interdiscip Rev Syst Biol Med · 2015 UNLABELLED: Tissue-engineered therapies are being developed across virtually all fields of medicine. Some of these therapies are already in clinical use, while others are still in clinical trials or the experimental phase. Most initial studies in the evalu ... Full text Link to item Cite

Use of behavior change techniques in clean cooking interventions: a review of the evidence and scorecard of effectiveness.

Journal Article J Health Commun · 2015 Despite decades of effort, around 2.8 billion people still rely on solid fuels to meet domestic energy needs. There is robust evidence this causes premature death and chronic disease, as well as wider economic, social, and environmental problems. Behavior ... Full text Link to item Cite

Food prices and obesity: a review.

Journal Article Adv Nutr · November 2014 In response to rising rates of obesity in the United States due in part to excess food consumption, researchers and policy makers have argued that levying food taxes on obesity-promoting foods, perhaps combined with subsidies on healthier options, would be ... Full text Link to item Cite

Ethnic differences translate to inadequacy of high-risk screening for gestational diabetes mellitus in an Asian population: a cohort study.

Journal Article BMC Pregnancy Childbirth · October 2, 2014 BACKGROUND: Universal and high-risk screening for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) has been widely studied and debated. Few studies have assessed GDM screening in Asian populations and even fewer have compared Asian ethnic groups in a single multi-ethni ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cohort profile: Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) birth cohort study.

Journal Article Int J Epidemiol · October 2014 Full text Link to item Cite

Meta- and cost-effectiveness analysis of commercial weight loss strategies.

Journal Article Obesity (Silver Spring) · September 2014 OBJECTIVE: To estimate the incremental cost-effectiveness of clinically proven nonsurgical commercial weight loss strategies for those with BMIs between 25 and 40. METHODS: We performed a systematic literature review to identify randomized controlled trial ... Full text Link to item Cite

Relationships of maternal folate and vitamin B12 status during pregnancy with perinatal depression: The GUSTO study.

Journal Article J Psychiatr Res · August 2014 UNLABELLED: Studies in the general population have proposed links between nutrition and depression, but less is known about the perinatal period. Depletion of nutrient reserves throughout pregnancy and delayed postpartum repletion could increase the risk o ... Full text Link to item Cite

A comparison of live counseling with a web-based lifestyle and medication intervention to reduce coronary heart disease risk: a randomized clinical trial.

Journal Article JAMA Intern Med · July 2014 IMPORTANCE: Most primary care clinicians lack the skills and resources to offer effective lifestyle and medication (L&M) counseling to reduce coronary heart disease (CHD) risk. Thus, effective and feasible CHD prevention programs are needed for typical pra ... Full text Link to item Cite

Erratum: Young adult weight trajectories through midlife by body mass category (Obesity (2013) 21 (1923-1934) DOI: 10.1002/oby.20318)

Journal Article Obesity · July 1, 2014 Full text Cite

Women who are motivated to eat and discount the future are more obese.

Journal Article Obesity (Silver Spring) · June 2014 OBJECTIVE: Food reinforcement and delay discounting (DD) independently predict body mass index (BMI), but there is no research studying whether these variables interact to improve prediction of BMI. METHODS: BMI, the relative reinforcing value of high (PMA ... Full text Link to item Cite

A cluster randomised controlled trial evaluating an incentive-based outdoor physical activity programme to increase outdoor time and prevent myopia in children.

Journal Article Ophthalmic Physiol Opt · May 2014 PURPOSE: To evaluate an incentive-based intervention to increase time spent outdoors among children in a 9-month cluster randomised controlled trial. METHODS: Two hundred and eighty-five children aged 6-12 years of age were randomised to the intervention ( ... Full text Link to item Cite

Lifetime direct medical costs of childhood obesity.

Journal Article Pediatrics · May 2014 BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: An estimate of the lifetime medical costs of an obese child provides a benchmark of the potential per capita savings that could accrue from successful childhood obesity prevention efforts. We reviewed the literature to identify t ... Full text Link to item Cite

Optimizing linkage and retention to hypertension care in rural Kenya (LARK hypertension study): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Journal Article Trials · April 27, 2014 BACKGROUND: Hypertension is the leading global risk factor for mortality. Hypertension treatment and control rates are low worldwide, and delays in seeking care are associated with increased mortality. Thus, a critical component of hypertension management ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Cost-effectiveness of family-based group treatment for child and parental obesity.

Journal Article Child Obes · April 2014 BACKGROUND: Obesity runs in families, and family-based behavioral treatment (FBT) is associated with weight loss in overweight/obese children and their overweight/obese parents. This study was designed to estimate the costs and cost-effectiveness of FBT co ... Full text Link to item Cite

Effects of financial incentives on motivating physical activity among older adults: results from a discrete choice experiment.

Journal Article BMC Public Health · February 10, 2014 BACKGROUND: There is extensive evidence that regular physical activity confers numerous health benefits. Despite this, high rates of physical inactivity prevail among older adults. This study aimed to ascertain if incentives could be effective in motivatin ... Full text Link to item Cite

Predicting the Effects of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Taxes on Food and Beverage Demand in a Large Demand System.

Journal Article Am J Agric Econ · January 1, 2014 A censored Exact Affine Stone Index incomplete demand system is estimated for 23 packaged foods and beverages and a numéraire good. Instrumental variables are used to control for endogenous prices. A half-cent per ounce increase in sugar-sweetened beverage ... Full text Link to item Cite

The economic burden of self-reported and undiagnosed cardiovascular diseases and diabetes on Indonesian households.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2014 OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study is: (1) to estimate the current direct out-of-pocket (OOP) and indirect non-communicable diseases (NCD) burden on Indonesian households and (2) to project NCD prevalence and burden in 2020 focusing specifically on hyperte ... Full text Link to item Cite

A cost-minimization analysis of tissue-engineered constructs for corneal endothelial transplantation.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2014 Corneal endothelial transplantation or endothelial keratoplasty has become the preferred choice of transplantation for patients with corneal blindness due to endothelial dysfunction. Currently, there is a worldwide shortage of transplantable tissue, and de ... Full text Link to item Cite

How big of a problem is obesity?

Journal Article Surg Obes Relat Dis · 2014 Full text Link to item Cite

Women who are motivated to eat and discount the future are more obese

Journal Article Obesity · 2014 Objective Food reinforcement and delay discounting (DD) independently predict body mass index (BMI), but there is no research studying whether these variables interact to improve prediction of BMI. Methods BMI, the relative reinforcing value of high (PMAXH ... Full text Cite

Improving the end-of-life experience in Singapore: building capacity in palliative care education and research.

Journal Article Ann Acad Med Singap · January 2014 Link to item Cite

Gestational age and neonatal brain microstructure in term born infants: a birth cohort study.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2014 OBJECTIVE: Understanding healthy brain development in utero is crucial in order to detect abnormal developmental trajectories due to developmental disorders. However, in most studies neuroimaging was done after a significant postnatal period, and in those ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cost-effectiveness of osteo-odonto keratoprosthesis in Singapore.

Journal Article Am J Ophthalmol · January 2014 PURPOSE: To determine the long-term cost-effectiveness of osteo-odonto keratoprosthesis (OOKP) relative to no treatment among patients with end-stage corneal and ocular surface diseases in Singapore. DESIGN: Cost-effectiveness analysis based on data from a ... Full text Link to item Cite

The economic cost of myopia in adults aged over 40 years in Singapore.

Journal Article Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci · November 13, 2013 PURPOSE: To estimate the economic cost of myopia among adults aged 40 years and older in Singapore. METHODS: A substudy of 113 Singaporean adults aged 40 years and older with myopia (spherical equivalent refraction of at least -0.5 diopters) in the populat ... Full text Link to item Cite

Designing and implementing a comparative effectiveness study of two strategies for delivering high quality CHD prevention: methods and participant characteristics for the Heart to Health study.

Journal Article Contemp Clin Trials · November 2013 BACKGROUND: Although lifestyle and medications are effective for coronary heart disease (CHD) risk reduction, few studies have examined the comparative effectiveness of various strategies for delivering high quality CHD risk reduction. In this paper, we re ... Full text Link to item Cite

Integrated depression management: a proposed trial of a new model of care in a low vision rehabilitation setting.

Journal Article Ophthalmic Epidemiol · October 2013 PURPOSE: Depression is a common problem among people with visual impairment and contributes to functional decline. This article presents a study protocol to evaluate a new model of care for those patients with depressive symptoms in which psychological tre ... Full text Link to item Cite

Young adult weight trajectories through midlife by body mass category.

Journal Article Obesity (Silver Spring) · September 2013 OBJECTIVE: To estimate the expected weight gain through midlife for those in a given BMI category in young adulthood. DESIGN AND METHODS: Group-based trajectory modeling and National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 data from 1990 to 2008 were used to qua ... Full text Link to item Cite

Health psychology meets behavioral economics: introduction to special issue.

Journal Article Health Psychol · September 2013 Introduces the special issue of Health Psychology, entitled Health Psychology Meets Behavioral Economics. Psychologists have long been interested in understanding the processes that underlie health behaviors and, based on health behavior models that they h ... Full text Link to item Cite

Response to Mahroo et al.

Journal Article Eye (Lond) · August 2013 Full text Link to item Cite

A cluster randomized controlled trial of an incentive-based outdoor physical activity program.

Journal Article J Pediatr · July 2013 OBJECTIVE: To evaluate an incentive-based physical activity intervention to increase physical activity and fitness among children in a 9-month cluster randomized controlled trial. STUDY DESIGN: Children aged 6-12 years were randomized to control (n = 138 f ... Full text Link to item Cite

The effect of weight loss on health, productivity, and medical expenditures among overweight employees.

Journal Article Med Care · June 2013 OBJECTIVES: To test whether overweight or obese employees who achieve clinically significant weight loss of ≥ 5% have reduced medical expenditures, absenteeism, presenteeism, and/or improved Health-Related Quality Of Life (HRQOL). METHODS: The sample analy ... Full text Link to item Cite

A new community-based outdoor intervention to increase physical activity in Singapore children: findings from focus groups.

Journal Article Ann Acad Med Singap · May 2013 INTRODUCTION: Myopia is a significant public health problem in Singapore with estimates that more than 50% of the population is affected by it by the time of adulthood. Childhood obesity is also increasing and has been linked to long-term health problems. ... Link to item Cite

Cost-effectiveness of HLA-B*1502 genotyping in adult patients with newly diagnosed epilepsy in Singapore.

Journal Article Neurology · April 23, 2013 Full text Link to item Cite

Willingness-to-pay and preferences for warfarin pharmacogenetic testing in Chinese warfarin patients and the Chinese general public

Journal Article Personalized Medicine · March 11, 2013 Aim: Genetic factors have been found to affect warfarin maintenance dose and a key factor for the successful clinical implementation of warfarin pharmacogenetic testing (WPGT) is economic sustainability. We aimed to estimate the willingness-to-pay (WTP) an ... Full text Cite

Cost-effectiveness of Descemet's stripping endothelial keratoplasty versus penetrating keratoplasty.

Journal Article Ophthalmology · March 2013 PURPOSE: Selective endothelial transplantation in the form of Descemet's stripping endothelial keratoplasty (DSEK) is rapidly replacing traditional full-thickness penetrating keratoplasty (PK) for endothelial disease. An incremental cost-effectiveness anal ... Full text Link to item Cite

Prevalence of comorbidities and baseline characteristics of LAP-BAND AP® subjects in the Helping Evaluate Reduction in Obesity (HERO) study.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2013 OBJECTIVE: To describe the baseline characteristics in patients who chose placement of a LAP-BAND AP® System (LBAP) and participated in the Helping Evaluate Reduction in Obesity (HERO) Study across regions. PATIENTS AND METHODS: HERO is a five-year, prospe ... Full text Link to item Cite

Body mass trajectories through midlife among adults with class I obesity.

Journal Article Surg Obes Relat Dis · 2013 BACKGROUND: Little is known about the body mass trajectories for adults with class I obesity. Our objective was to map the body mass trajectories through midlife for young adults with class I obesity in the United States. METHODS: Data from the National Lo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Implications of a sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax when substitutions to non-beverage items are considered.

Journal Article J Health Econ · January 2013 Using the 2006 Homescan panel, we estimate the changes in energy, fat and sodium purchases resulting from a tax that increases the price of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) by 20% and the effect of such a tax on body weight. In addition to substitutions th ... Full text Link to item Cite

The business case for bariatric surgery revisited: a non-randomized case-control study.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2013 BACKGROUND AND AIM: Prior studies reporting that bariatric surgery (including laparoscopic adjustable gastric band (LAGB) and [laparoscopic Roux-en-Y] Gastric Bypass (LRYGB)) is cost-saving relied on a comparison sample of those with a morbid obesity (MO) ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cost-effectiveness of an injury and drowning prevention program in Bangladesh.

Journal Article Pediatrics · December 2012 OBJECTIVE: Interventions that mitigate drowning risk in developing countries are needed. This study presents the cost-effectiveness of a low-cost, scalable injury and drowning prevention program called Prevention of Child Injuries through Social-Interventi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Motivation for participating in a weight loss program and financial incentives: An analysis from a randomized trial

Journal Article Journal of Obesity · September 19, 2012 This analysis investigated if changes in autonomous or controlled motivation for participation in a weight loss program differed between individuals offered a financial incentive for weight loss compared to individuals not offered an incentive. Additionall ... Full text Cite

Obesity and Medical Costs

Chapter · September 18, 2012 This chapter summarizes the literature on the relationship between obesity and medical spending, including a discussion of both per capita and aggregate annual and lifetime medical costs attributable to obesity, and external costs funded by public sector h ... Full text Cite

Cost-effectiveness of HLA-B*1502 genotyping in adult patients with newly diagnosed epilepsy in Singapore.

Journal Article Neurology · September 18, 2012 OBJECTIVE: Asians who carry the HLA-B*1502 allele have an elevated risk of developing Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) when treated with the antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) carbamazepine (CBZ) and phenytoin (PHT). With a focus ... Full text Link to item Cite

Youth employment, income, and smoking initiation: results from Korean panel data.

Journal Article J Adolesc Health · September 2012 PURPOSE: To estimate the effect of youth employment and income on smoking initiation, this study tests whether youth with higher incomes from either employment or allowance are more likely to smoke, and, if so, whether it is the employment effect or the in ... Full text Link to item Cite

Comparison of measurements of time outdoors and light levels as risk factors for myopia in young Singapore children.

Journal Article Eye (Lond) · July 2012 AIMS: To compare methods to measure time outdoor and light levels, two possible predictors of myopia, in Singapore children. METHODS: Outdoor time from a diary and portable light meter over a 1-week period was compared in 117 Singapore children aged 6-12 y ... Full text Link to item Cite

Effect of a stepped-care intervention approach on weight loss in adults: a randomized clinical trial.

Journal Article JAMA · June 27, 2012 CONTEXT: Given the obesity epidemic, effective but resource-efficient weight loss treatments are needed. Stepped-treatment approaches customize interventions based on milestone completion and can be more effective while costing less to administer than conv ... Full text Link to item Cite

Obesity and severe obesity forecasts through 2030.

Journal Article Am J Prev Med · June 2012 BACKGROUND: Previous efforts to forecast future trends in obesity applied linear forecasts assuming that the rise in obesity would continue unabated. However, evidence suggests that obesity prevalence may be leveling off. PURPOSE: This study presents estim ... Full text Link to item Cite

Organizational- and employee-level recruitment into a worksite-based weight loss study.

Journal Article Clin Trials · April 2012 BACKGROUND: Based on national estimates, the majority of working adults are overweight or obese. Overweight and obesity are associated with diminished health, productivity, and increased medical costs for employers. Worksite-based weight loss interventions ... Full text Link to item Cite

Experimental research on the relation between food price changes and food-purchasing patterns: a targeted review.

Journal Article Am J Clin Nutr · April 2012 One way in which to modify food purchases is to change prices through tax policy, subsidy policy, or both. We reviewed the growing body of experimental research conducted in the laboratory and in the field that investigates the following: the extent to whi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Hard truths and a new strategy for addressing childhood obesity.

Journal Article Child Obes · April 2012 We debunk three likely misperceptions about childhood obesity: (1) the epidemic thereof is caused by poverty, (2) information campaigns alone would be effective at reducing childhood obesity rates, and (3) obesity-reducing interventions would necessarily s ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cost-effectiveness of epidermal growth factor receptor mutation testing and first-line treatment with gefitinib for patients with advanced adenocarcinoma of the lung.

Journal Article Cancer · February 15, 2012 BACKGROUND: Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) testing and first-line therapy with gefitinib for patients with activating mutations is quickly becoming the standard option for the treatment of advanced lung adenocarcinoma. Yet, to date, little is know ... Full text Link to item Cite

Transcriptome changes affecting Hedgehog and cytokine signalling in the umbilical cord: implications for disease risk.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2012 BACKGROUND: Babies born at lower gestational ages or smaller birthweights have a greater risk of poorer health in later life. Both the causes of these sub-optimal birth outcomes and the mechanism by which the effects are transmitted over decades are the su ... Full text Link to item Cite

Incorporating indirect costs into a cost-benefit analysis of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding.

Journal Article Value Health · 2012 OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to estimate the time to breakeven and 5-year net costs of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) taking both direct and indirect costs and cost savings into account. METHODS: Estimates of direct cost savi ... Full text Link to item Cite

State- and payer-specific estimates of annual medical expenditures attributable to obesity.

Journal Article Obesity (Silver Spring) · January 2012 The goal of this study is to expand prior analyses by presenting current state-level estimates of the costs of obesity in total and separately for Medicare and Medicaid. Quantifying current Medicare and Medicaid expenditures attributable to obesity is impo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Impact of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding on type 2 diabetes.

Journal Article Obes Rev · January 2012 Bariatric surgery is becoming an accepted option for obese people with type 2 diabetes. Our aim was to assess the impact of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) through a systematic review of the literature. Data was sourced from Scopus, MEDLINE ... Full text Link to item Cite

Independent impact of area-level socioeconomic measures on visual impairment.

Journal Article Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci · November 11, 2011 PURPOSE: It is known that a person's socioeconomic status (SES; individual-level SES) is closely correlated with his or her degree of visual impairment. Whether there is an independent relationship between area-level measures of SES (e.g., living in a lowe ... Full text Link to item Cite

Direct and indirect costs and potential cost savings of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding among obese patients with diabetes.

Journal Article J Occup Environ Med · September 2011 OBJECTIVE: To estimate the time to breakeven and 5-year net costs for laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding among obese patients with diabetes taking direct and indirect costs into account. METHODS: Indirect cost savings were generated by quantifying the ... Full text Link to item Cite

Health economics of cardiovascular disease: Defining the research agenda

Journal Article CVD Prevention and Control · September 1, 2011 Background: When allocating limited resources, public and private sector leaders in health policy consider both the health and economic value of new measures for cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention. The ability to develop and prioritize policy measures ... Full text Cite

Incremental cost-utility analysis of deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty compared with penetrating keratoplasty for the treatment of keratoconus.

Journal Article Am J Ophthalmol · July 2011 PURPOSE: This study sought to determine the cost effectiveness of deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK) compared with penetrating keratoplasty (PK) for the treatment of keratoconus. DALK is associated with lower rates of postoperative complications co ... Full text Link to item Cite

Forecasting the future of cardiovascular disease in the United States: a policy statement from the American Heart Association.

Journal Article Circulation · March 1, 2011 BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the United States and is responsible for 17% of national health expenditures. As the population ages, these costs are expected to increase substantially. METHODS AND RESULTS: To prep ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Estimates of national health care expenditures associated with disability

Journal Article Journal of Disability Policy Studies · March 1, 2011 We estimated adult national health care expenditures associated with disability by type of care and payer. These estimates represent the "additional" health care expenditures associated with disability over and above any non-disability-related health care ... Full text Cite

Mandatory menu labeling in one fast-food chain in King County, Washington.

Journal Article Am J Prev Med · February 2011 BACKGROUND: As part of a comprehensive effort to stem the rise in obesity, King County, Washington, enforced a mandatory menu-labeling regulation requiring all restaurant chains with 15 or more locations to disclose calorie information at the point of purc ... Full text Link to item Cite

Financial implications of coverage for laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding.

Journal Article Surg Obes Relat Dis · 2011 BACKGROUND: Employers and insurers have become increasingly concerned about the cost implications of providing coverage for bariatric procedures. We sought to quantify the costs and potential cost savings resulting from coverage for laparoscopic adjustable ... Full text Link to item Cite

Knowledge and perceptions among overweight and obese employees about lifestyle-related health benefit changes.

Journal Article N C Med J · 2011 BACKGROUND: We investigated perceptions among overweight and obese state employees about changes to health insurance that were designed to reduce the scope of health benefits for employees who are obese or who smoke. METHODS: Before implementation of healt ... Open Access Link to item Cite

Adolescent weight status and self-reported school performance in South Korea.

Journal Article J Obes · 2011 Using a nationally representative sample of 142 783 middle school (13-15 years old) and high school (16-18 years old) students in South Korea, this study examined whether (1) overweight and obesity are more likely to be associated with lower self-reported ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Impact of targeted beverage taxes on higher- and lower-income households.

Journal Article Arch Intern Med · December 13, 2010 BACKGROUND: Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes are increasingly being considered as a strategy for addressing the obesity epidemic. We sought to investigate the differential impact of targeted beverage taxes on higher- and lower-income households. METHOD ... Full text Link to item Cite

Does cost savings mean cost effective?

Journal Article Am J Prev Med · November 2010 Full text Link to item Cite

The costs of obesity in the workplace.

Journal Article J Occup Environ Med · October 2010 OBJECTIVE: To quantify per capita and aggregate medical expenditures and the value of lost productivity, including absenteeism and presenteeism, because of overweight, and grade I, II, and III obesity among U.S. employees. METHODS: Cross-sectional analysis ... Full text Link to item Cite

Can fiscal approaches help to reduce obesity risk?

Chapter · September 9, 2010 One approach for reversing the obesity epidemic is to use economic strategies to change the costs and benefits of behaviours related to obesity in an effort to change positively the energy-balance equation. To date, these strategies have taken the followin ... Full text Cite

Cancer treatment cost in the United States: has the burden shifted over time?

Journal Article Cancer · July 15, 2010 BACKGROUND: There has not been a comprehensive analysis of how aggregate cancer costs have changed over time. The authors present 1) updated estimates of the prevalence and total cost of cancer for select payers and how these have changed over the past 2 d ... Full text Link to item Cite

Rates and costs of respiratory illness in coal mining: a cross-industry comparative analysis.

Journal Article J Occup Environ Med · June 2010 OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence and costs of respiratory illness for workers in coal mining, compared with other US industries. METHODS: Using 5 years of insurance claims data for an annual average of 96,240 adult males, we model the probability and ... Full text Link to item Cite

The economics of obesity.

Journal Article Am J Clin Nutr · May 2010 The rise in obesity rates, both nationally and internationally, is a result of changes in the environment that have simultaneously lowered the cost of food production, lowered the time and monetary cost of food consumption, increased the real cost of being ... Full text Link to item Cite

The influence of taxes and subsidies on energy purchased in an experimental purchasing study.

Journal Article Psychol Sci · March 2010 There is limited research on how taxes and subsidies would influence the energy and nutritional quality of food purchases. Using an experimental analogue purchasing task, we examined the effects of increasing the price of high-calorie-for-nutrient foods or ... Full text Link to item Cite

Individual and aggregate years-of-life-lost associated with overweight and obesity.

Journal Article Obesity (Silver Spring) · February 2010 This study presents nationally representative estimates of individual and aggregate years-of-life-lost (YLLs) associated with overweight and three categories of obesity separately by age, race, smoking status, and gender strata. Using proportional hazards ... Full text Link to item Cite

Estimates of state-level health-care expenditures associated with disability.

Journal Article Public Health Rep · 2010 OBJECTIVES: We estimated state-level disability-associated health-care expenditures (DAHE) for the U.S. adult population. METHODS: We used a two-part model to estimate DAHE for the noninstitutionalized U.S. civilian adult population using data from the 200 ... Full text Link to item Cite

A longitudinal study on the relationship between weight loss, medical expenditures, and absenteeism among overweight employees in the WAY to Health study.

Journal Article J Occup Environ Med · December 2009 OBJECTIVE: To quantify the extent to which successful weight loss among overweight/obese employees translates into subsequent savings in medical expenditures and absenteeism. METHODS: This analysis relied on medical claims and absenteeism data collected fr ... Full text Link to item Cite

The personal financial burden of cancer for the working-aged population.

Journal Article Am J Manag Care · November 2009 OBJECTIVE: To present nationally representative estimates of the effect of cancer care on out-of-pocket medical expenditures and lost productivity for the working-aged population. STUDY DESIGN: Secondary data analysis. METHODS: Pooled data from the Medical ... Link to item Cite

The Incidence and Economic Burden of Injuries in the United States

Book · September 1, 2009 Injuries are one of the most serious public health problems facing the United States today. Through premature death, disability, medical cost, and lost productivity, injuries impact the health and welfare of all Americans. Deaths only begin to tell the sto ... Full text Cite

Cost effectiveness of internet interventions: review and recommendations.

Journal Article Ann Behav Med · August 2009 BACKGROUND: Internet interventions have a large potential for public health impact, and their efficacy has been established over the past 10-15 years. Cost effectiveness of Internet interventions is one of the most frequently cited reasons for developing s ... Full text Link to item Cite

State-level Medicaid expenditures attributable to smoking.

Journal Article Prev Chronic Dis · July 2009 INTRODUCTION: Medicaid recipients are disproportionately affected by tobacco-related disease because their smoking prevalence is approximately 53% greater than that of the overall US adult population. This study estimates state-level smoking-attributable M ... Link to item Cite

A return-on-investment simulation model of workplace obesity interventions.

Journal Article J Occup Environ Med · July 2009 OBJECTIVE: To calculate return-on-investment (ROI) from workplace obesity interventions, employers require information about costs saved by the intervention. This article presents a simulation model used to calculate ROI for workplace obesity interventions ... Full text Link to item Cite

Erratum: Have efforts to reduce smoking really contributed to the obesity epidemic (Economic Inquiry (2009) 47:2 (370))

Journal Article Economic Inquiry · July 1, 2009 Full text Cite

Youth BMI trajectories: evidence from the NLSY97.

Journal Article Obesity (Silver Spring) · June 2009 We examined heterogeneity in BMI trajectory classes among youth and variables that may be associated with trajectory class membership. We used data from seven rounds (1997-2003) of the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97), a nationally repre ... Full text Link to item Cite

Recall of three heart disease risk factor diagnoses among low-income women.

Journal Article J Womens Health (Larchmt) · May 2009 BACKGROUND: Success of interventions targeting heart disease risk factors depends largely on whether patients understand their risk factors, as awareness and acceptance are necessary steps in controlling and managing these conditions. The goal of this anal ... Full text Link to item Cite

Have efforts to reduce smoking really contributed to the obesity epidemic?

Journal Article Economic Inquiry · April 1, 2009 Two of the most notable trends in public health over the past 30 yr are the reductions in smoking rates and the rapid rise in obesity rates. Several studies have investigated the relationship between these trends but have drawn different conclusions. In th ... Full text Cite

Considerations for an obesity policy research agenda.

Journal Article Am J Prev Med · April 2009 The rise in obesity levels in the U.S. in the past several decades has been dramatic, with serious implications for public health and the economy. Experiences in tobacco control and other public health initiatives have shown that public policy may be a pow ... Full text Link to item Cite

Estimating older adults' preferences for walking programs via conjoint analysis.

Journal Article Am J Prev Med · March 2009 BACKGROUND: Physical inactivity is a major driver of costly health problems, especially in older adults. Structured walking programs are one approach for increasing physical activity, although there is little information about how the characteristics of th ... Full text Link to item Cite

Comparing cost-of-illness estimates from alternative approaches: an application to diabetes.

Journal Article Health Serv Res · February 2009 OBJECTIVE: To compare disease cost estimates from two commonly used approaches. DATA SOURCE: Pooled Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) data for 1998-2003. STUDY DESIGN: We compared regression-based (RB) and attributable fraction (AF) approaches for es ... Full text Link to item Cite

Annual medical spending attributable to obesity: payer-and service-specific estimates.

Journal Article Health Aff (Millwood) · 2009 In 1998 the medical costs of obesity were estimated to be as high as $78.5 billion, with roughly half financed by Medicare and Medicaid. This analysis presents updated estimates of the costs of obesity for the United States across payers (Medicare, Medicai ... Full text Link to item Cite

Methods for estimating medical expenditures attributable to intimate partner violence.

Journal Article J Interpers Violence · December 2008 This article compares three methods for estimating the medical cost burden of intimate partner violence against U.S. adult women (18 years and older), 1 year postvictimization. To compute the estimates, prevalence data from the National Violence Against Wo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Return on investment for bariatric surgery.

Journal Article Am J Manag Care · September 2008 Link to item Cite

Indirect costs of obesity: a review of the current literature.

Journal Article Obes Rev · September 2008 This study reviews the recent literature on the relationship between obesity and indirect (non-medical) costs. Medline and Web of Science searches were conducted to identify published studies from 1992 to present that report indirect costs by obesity statu ... Full text Link to item Cite

The lifetime medical cost burden of overweight and obesity: implications for obesity prevention.

Journal Article Obesity (Silver Spring) · August 2008 This study quantifies age-specific and lifetime costs for overweight (BMI: 25-29.9), obese I (BMI: 30-34.9), and obese II/III (BMI: >35) adults separately by race/gender strata. We use these results to demonstrate why private sector firms are likely to und ... Full text Link to item Cite

A randomized study of financial incentives to increase physical activity among sedentary older adults.

Journal Article Prev Med · August 2008 OBJECTIVE: Less than half of all U.S. adults meet public health recommendations for physical activity, and even fewer older adults (aged 50 years and over) are sufficiently active. Because inactivity increases the risk of costly medical complications, succ ... Full text Link to item Cite

Use of econometric models to estimate expenditure shares.

Journal Article Health Serv Res · August 2008 OBJECTIVE: To investigate the use of regression models to calculate disease-specific shares of medical expenditures. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), 2000-2003. STUDY DESIGN: Theoretical investigation and secondary data ... Full text Link to item Cite

Obesity as a disease: a white paper on evidence and arguments commissioned by the Council of the Obesity Society.

Journal Article Obesity (Silver Spring) · June 2008 Full text Link to item Cite

Public health interventions for addressing childhood overweight: analysis of the business case.

Journal Article Am J Public Health · March 2008 We investigated the appropriateness of basing childhood obesity interventions on expectations of return on investment (ROI). We show that excess weight is indeed associated with greater medical expenditures even among children and adolescents. However, und ... Full text Link to item Cite

Do obese persons comprehend their personal health risks?

Journal Article Am J Health Behav · 2008 OBJECTIVES: To test whether overweight and obese individuals believe they are at greater risk of obesity-related diseases and premature mortality. METHODS: Telephone survey of 1139 US adults analyzed using linear and ordered logistic regressions. RESULTS: ... Full text Link to item Cite

Insurance coverage and incentives for weight loss among adults with metabolic syndrome.

Journal Article Obesity (Silver Spring) · January 2008 OBJECTIVE: To describe how insured adults with metabolic syndrome respond to various options for insurance coverage and financial incentives for weight management. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Insured adults meeting the criteria for the metabolic syndrome were ... Full text Link to item Cite

A pilot study testing the effect of different levels of financial incentives on weight loss among overweight employees.

Journal Article J Occup Environ Med · September 2007 OBJECTIVE: To test the ability of two levels of modest financial incentives to encourage weight loss among overweight employees. METHODS: This study used a randomized design with measurements at baseline, 3, and 6 months and two levels of financial incenti ... Full text Link to item Cite

The economic burden of chronic cardiovascular disease for major insurers.

Journal Article Health Promot Pract · July 2007 Accounting models provide less precise estimates of disease burden than do econometric models. The authors seek to improve these estimates for cardiovascular disease using a nationally representative survey and econometric modeling to isolate the proportio ... Full text Link to item Cite

Increased prevalence of falls among elderly individuals with mental health and substance abuse conditions.

Journal Article Am J Geriatr Psychiatry · July 2007 OBJECTIVE: To quantify the increase in the likelihood of a fall injury and medical costs of treating fall injuries among elderly individuals with select mental health (MH), substance abuse (SA), and cognitive disorders compared with the general elderly pop ... Full text Link to item Cite

Medical costs and productivity losses due to interpersonal and self-directed violence in the United States.

Journal Article Am J Prev Med · June 2007 BACKGROUND: Violence-related injuries, including suicide, adversely affect the health and welfare of all Americans through premature death, disability, medical costs, and lost productivity. Estimating the magnitude of the economic burden of violence is cri ... Full text Link to item Cite

Beyond effectiveness: evaluating the public health impact of the WISEWOMAN program.

Journal Article Am J Public Health · April 2007 Interventions that are effective are often improperly or only partially implemented when put into practice. When intervention programs are evaluated, feasibility of implementation and effectiveness need to be examined. Reach, effectiveness, adoption, imple ... Full text Link to item Cite

The relationship between obesity and injuries among U.S. adults.

Journal Article Am J Health Promot · 2007 PURPOSE: To quantify the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and rates of medically attended injuries by mechanism (overall, fall, motor vehicle, and sport-related) and by nature (strain/sprain, lower extremity fracture, and dislocations), and betwe ... Full text Link to item Cite

The impact of medication use in a multicomponent intervention: results from the WISEWOMAN program.

Journal Article Am J Health Promot · 2007 PURPOSE: To assess the impact of medication use on improvements in coronary heart disease (CHD) risk among WISEWOMAN participants. DESIGN: Pre-post analysis. SETTING: WISEWOMAN projects operating at the local level in 8 states. SUBJECTS: WISEWOMAN particip ... Full text Link to item Cite

Age-specific impact of obesity on prevalence and costs of diabetes and dyslipidemia

Journal Article Value in Health · January 1, 2007 Objective: To estimate the differential impact of obesity on prevalence and medical costs overall and for three major obesity-related complications (diabetes, dyslipidemia, and their joint occurrence) over the life cycle. Methods: The impact of obesity on ... Full text Cite

The costs of fatal and non-fatal falls among older adults.

Journal Article Inj Prev · October 2006 OBJECTIVE: To estimate the incidence and direct medical costs for fatal and non-fatal fall injuries among US adults aged >or=65 years in 2000, for three treatment settings stratified by age, sex, body region, and type of injury. METHODS: Incidence data cam ... Full text Link to item Cite

Assessing the ability of cardiovascular disease risk calculators to evaluate effectiveness of trials and interventions

Journal Article Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research · August 1, 2006 Many cardiovascular disease risk calculators are available to evaluate clinical trials and lifestyle interventions aimed at reducing cardiovascular disease risk. We build upon previous research on differences across existing calculators by describing 11 ca ... Full text Cite

Incidence and lifetime costs of injuries in the United States.

Journal Article Inj Prev · August 2006 BACKGROUND: Standardized methodologies for assessing economic burden of injury at the national or international level do not exist. OBJECTIVE: To measure national incidence, medical costs, and productivity losses of medically treated injuries using the mos ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cost-effectiveness of WISEWOMAN, a program aimed at reducing heart disease risk among low-income women.

Journal Article J Womens Health (Larchmt) · May 2006 OBJECTIVE: To quantify the cost-effectiveness of the WISEWOMAN program. WISEWOMAN is a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-funded lifestyle intervention program that provides low-income uninsured women aged 40-64 with chronic disease risk fact ... Full text Link to item Cite

Environment, obesity, and cardiovascular disease risk in low-income women.

Journal Article Am J Prev Med · April 2006 BACKGROUND: Financially disadvantaged populations are more likely to live in communities that do not support healthy choices. This paper investigates whether certain characteristics of the built environment are associated with obesity or coronary heart dis ... Full text Link to item Cite

Why does the private sector underinvest in obesity prevention and treatment?

Journal Article N C Med J · 2006 Link to item Cite

Changing perceptions of the childhood obesity epidemic.

Journal Article Am J Health Behav · 2006 OBJECTIVES: To examine changes in public attitudes about childhood obesity and support for prevention. METHODS: RTI surveyed US households (N = 1047 and N = 1139) about perceived severity, causes, and support for specific obesity interventions. Logistic re ... Full text Link to item Cite

Erratum: The role of price, sociodemographic factors, and health in the demand for bariatric surgery (American Journal of Managed Care (October 2005) 11, 10 (630-637))

Journal Article American Journal of Managed Care · December 1, 2005 Cite

A comparison of the case-control and case-crossover designs for estimating medical costs of nonfatal fall-related injuries among older Americans.

Journal Article Med Care · November 2005 OBJECTIVES: Although the case-crossover design has been used widely in epidemiological and cost-offset studies as an alternative to the case-control design, it is rarely applied to cost-of-illness studies. In this study, costs for a series of hospitalized ... Full text Link to item Cite

A cost-benefit simulation model of coverage for bariatric surgery among full-time employees.

Journal Article Am J Manag Care · October 2005 OBJECTIVE: To use a simulation model to estimate the costs and benefits of bariatric surgery among full-time employees. STUDY DESIGN: Multivariate regression analysis of nationally representative survey data sets to estimate the costs of obesity and a simu ... Link to item Cite

The role of price, sociodemographic factors, and health in the demand for bariatric surgery.

Journal Article Am J Manag Care · October 2005 OBJECTIVES: To estimate the effect of price, sociodemographic factors, and health on the demand for bariatric surgery among eligible individuals with private health insurance, in order to enable policy makers and insurers to make more informed decisions co ... Link to item Cite

The costs of obesity among full-time employees.

Journal Article Am J Health Promot · 2005 PURPOSE: To quantify annual costs attributable to obesity, including both increased medical expenditures and absenteeism, separately for overweight and three categories of obesity (i.e., obesity grades I, II, and III) among men and women with full-time emp ... Full text Link to item Cite

Public perceptions of childhood obesity.

Journal Article Am J Prev Med · January 2005 BACKGROUND: Obesity has been identified as an epidemic by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rates of unhealthy body weight among children and adolescents have tripled since the 1980s to 15%. Media coverage of obesity has also increased, and t ... Full text Link to item Cite

Economic causes and consequences of obesity.

Journal Article Annu Rev Public Health · 2005 Obesity is not only a health but also an economic phenomenon. This chapter (a) examines underlying economic causes, such as technological advancements, behind the obesity epidemic; (b) describes economic consequences of obesity, including increasing obesit ... Full text Link to item Cite

Pros and cons of proposed interventions to promote healthy eating.

Journal Article Am J Prev Med · October 2004 The increased prevalence and costs associated with the obesity epidemic have made preventive efforts a public health priority. Public health has historically relied on a series of targeted regulations, taxes, and education efforts to curb epidemics, and wi ... Full text Link to item Cite

The skinny on COI analysis.

Journal Article Obes Res · July 2004 Full text Link to item Cite

The economic toll of intimate partner violence against women in the United States.

Journal Article Violence Vict · June 2004 This study provides estimates of the economic cost of intimate partner violence perpetrated against women in the US, including expenditures for medical care and mental health services, and lost productivity from injury and premature death. The analysis use ... Full text Link to item Cite

Health promotion interventions for disadvantaged women: overview of the WISEWOMAN projects.

Journal Article J Womens Health (Larchmt) · June 2004 BACKGROUND: The Well-Integrated Screening and Evaluation for Women Across the Nation (WISEWOMAN) program aims to remove racial and ethnic disparities in health by addressing the screening and intervention needs of midlife uninsured women. This paper descri ... Full text Link to item Cite

Evaluation of public health demonstration programs: the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of WISEWOMAN.

Journal Article J Womens Health (Larchmt) · June 2004 BACKGROUND: In today's healthcare environment, public health resources are scarce. Thus, interventions to improve the public's health must be rigorously evaluated to ensure that they make the best use of available resources. METHODS: The Centers for Diseas ... Full text Link to item Cite

Spatial analysis of body mass index and smoking behavior among WISEWOMAN participants.

Journal Article J Womens Health (Larchmt) · June 2004 BACKGROUND: The WISEWOMAN program focuses on reducing cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors by providing screening and lifestyle interventions for many low-income and uninsured women. To provide the most effective interventions possible, it is importan ... Full text Link to item Cite

Racial/ethnic disparities in coronary heart disease risk factors among WISEWOMAN enrollees.

Journal Article J Womens Health (Larchmt) · June 2004 BACKGROUND: We used the baseline data collected for the Well-integrated Screening and Evaluation for Women Across the Nation (WISEWOMAN) participants to provide a snapshot of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk on enrollment and to address racial/ethnic disp ... Full text Link to item Cite

Does payment drive procedures? Payment for specialty services and procedure rate variations in 3 HMOs.

Journal Article Am J Manag Care · March 2004 OBJECTIVE: To study how payment for specialty services affects the rates of performance of invasive procedures by physicians in a number of specialties. STUDY DESIGN: Observational study. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Administrative data from 1996-1997 and 1997-19 ... Link to item Cite

Pedestrian and pedalcyclist injury costs in the United States by age and injury severity.

Journal Article Annu Proc Assoc Adv Automot Med · 2004 This paper estimates the incidence, unit costs, and annual costs of pedestrian and pedalcycle crash injuries in the United States. It includes medical care costs, household and wage work losses, and the value of pain, suffering, and lost quality of life. T ... Link to item Cite

State-level estimates of annual medical expenditures attributable to obesity.

Journal Article Obes Res · January 2004 OBJECTIVE: To provide state-level estimates of total, Medicare, and Medicaid obesity-attributable medical expenditures. RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES: We developed an econometric model that predicts medical expenditures. We used this model and state-repr ... Full text Link to item Cite

Use of incentives to motivate healthy behaviors among employees

Journal Article Gender Issues · December 1, 2003 We conducted an extensive literature search of both published and unpublished sources to assess the use and effectiveness of worksite interventions that offer financial and other incentives. Many companies are using financial incentives, either alone or in ... Full text Cite

Cost-of-illness analyses for policy making: A cautionary tale of use and misuse

Journal Article Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research · August 1, 2003 In summary, we recognize that many current COI analyses suffer from both data and methodological shortcomings. However, we believe that a carefully conducted COI study that clearly documents all assumptions and limitations can minimize many of the concerns ... Full text Cite

Prevalence and costs of major depression among elderly claimants with diabetes.

Journal Article Diabetes Care · February 2003 OBJECTIVE: To compare the odds of major depression among Medicare claimants with and without diabetes and to test whether annual medical payments are greater for those with both diabetes and major depression than for those with diabetes alone. RESEARCH DES ... Full text Link to item Cite

National medical spending attributable to overweight and obesity: how much, and who's paying?

Journal Article Health Aff (Millwood) · 2003 We use a regression framework and nationally representative data to compute aggregate overweight- and obesity-attributable medical spending for the United States and for select payers. Combined, such expenditures accounted for 9.1 percent of total annual U ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cost-effectiveness of a cardiovascular disease risk reduction program aimed at financially vulnerable women: the Massachusetts WISEWOMAN project.

Journal Article J Womens Health Gend Based Med · 2002 OBJECTIVE: The Massachusetts WISEWOMAN Project is a cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk reduction program targeting older uninsured and underinsured women. The cost-effectiveness of providing CVD screening and enhanced lifestyle interventions (EI), compared ... Full text Link to item Cite

Medicare beneficiary satisfaction with durable medical equipment suppliers.

Journal Article Health Care Financ Rev · 2001 CMS has recently launched a series of initiatives to control Medicare spending on durable medical equipment (DME) and prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS). An important question is how these initiatives will affect beneficiary satisfaction. Using ... Link to item Cite