The Medical journal of Australia
-
To quantify women's uptake of Medicare Benefits Schedule mental health items, compare characteristics of women by mental health service use, and investigate the impact on Medicare costs. ⋯ Although there has been rapid uptake of mental health items, uptake by women with mental health needs is low and there is potential socioeconomic inequity.
-
To examine the costs and cost-effectiveness of full implementation of biennial bowel cancer screening for Australian residents aged 50-74 years. ⋯ Full implementation of biennial faecal occult blood test screening in Australia can reduce bowel cancer mortality, and is an efficient use of health resources that would require modest additional government investment.
-
The prevalence of cardiovascular disease, a major cause of disease burden in Australia and other developed countries, is increasing due to a rapidly ageing population and environmental, biomedical and modifiable lifestyle factors. Although cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs have been shown to be beneficial and effective, rates of referral, uptake and utilisation of traditional hospital or community centre programs are poor. Home-based CR programs have been shown to be as effective as centre-based programs, and recent advances in information and communication technologies (ICT) can be used to enhance the delivery of such programs. ⋯ A central database, with access to these data, allows mentors to assess patients' progress, assist in setting goals, revise targets and give weekly personal feedback. Mentors find the mobile-phone modalities practical and easy to use, and preliminary results show high usage rates and acceptance of ICT by participants. The provision of ICT-supported home-based CR programs may enable more patients in both metropolitan and remote settings to benefit from CR.
-
To assess the utility of glycated haemoglobin (HbA(1c)) level as an automated screening test for undiagnosed diabetes among hospitalised patients and to estimate the prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes among hospitalised patients. ⋯ HbA(1c) is a simple, inexpensive screening test that can be automated using existing clinical blood samples. Hospital screening for diabetes needs to be coupled with resources for management in the community.