European journal of internal medicine
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Eur. J. Intern. Med. · Aug 2018
Metabolic syndrome positively correlates with the risks of atherosclerosis and diabetes in a Chinese population.
Published studies seldom tested the weight of different waist circumference (WC) cut-off values for the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in predicting clinical outcomes, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes. ⋯ In a stepwise manner, both ATP III/AHA/NHLBI- or Asian-MetS scores were strong risk factors for arterial stiffness and diabetes. Through a novel and holistic approach, the performance of the ATP III/AHA/NHLBI-MetS score for the risks of arterial stiffness and diabetes was comparable to the Asian-MetS score among a Chinese population.
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Eur. J. Intern. Med. · Aug 2018
A case-mix classification system for explaining healthcare costs using administrative data in Italy.
The Italian National Health Service (NHS) provides universal coverage to all citizens, granting primary and hospital care with a copayment system for outpatient and drug services. Financing of Local Health Trusts (LHTs) is based on a capitation system adjusted only for age, gender and area of residence. We applied a risk-adjustment system (Johns Hopkins Adjusted Clinical Groups System, ACG® System) in order to explain health care costs using routinely collected administrative data in the Veneto Region (North-eastern Italy). ⋯ ACG System provides substantial improvement in predicting health care costs when compared to simple age-gender adjustments. Aging itself is not the main determinant of the increase of health care costs, which is better explained by the accumulation of chronic conditions and the resulting multimorbidity.