Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2014Rise and Fall of HIV in High-Prevalence Countries: A Challenge for Mathematical Modeling
Several countries with generalized, high-prevalence HIV epidemics, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, have experienced rapid declines …
Several countries with generalized, high-prevalence HIV epidemics, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, have experienced rapid declines in transmission. These HIV epidemics, often with rapid onsets, have generally been attributed to a combination of factors related to high-risk sexual behavior. The subsequent declines in these countries began prior to widespread therapy or implementation of any other major biomedical prevention. This change has been construed as evidence of behavior change, often on the basis of mathematical models, but…
Health Outcomes | Health/Medicine | Mathematical Models | Infectious Diseases | Sub-Saharan Africa -
ReviewPublication 2012From Efficacy to Equity: Literature Review
Resource allocation is a challenging issue faced by health policy decision makers requiring careful consideration …
Resource allocation is a challenging issue faced by health policy decision makers requiring careful consideration of many factors. The aim of this study was to analyse the peer-reviewed literature to identify criteria reported in empirical studies that involved healthcare decisionmakers and in studies describing multicriteria tools.
Priority Setting/Ethics | Health/Medicine | Social Determinants -
ArticlePublication 2012Value of Family Planning for Improving Maternal Health in Rural Afghanistan
This article, published in the Afghanistan Journal of Public Health, uses a model designed to …
This article, published in the Afghanistan Journal of Public Health, uses a model designed to simulate the natural history of pregnancy and associated maternal mortality and morbidity contextualized to Afghanistan to assess the cost-effectiveness of family planning in the rural Maywand district of Kandahar. Using total fertility rate, pregnancy-related complications, maternal mortality ratio, lifetime risk of maternal death, and proportionate mortality ratio as outcomes, the model finds that increasing family planning from 8% to 30-50% could…
Health Outcomes | Health/Medicine | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Maternal/Reproductive Health | Policy/Regulation | Asia & Pacific -
ReviewPublication 2011Dynamic Microsimulation Models for Health Outcomes: A Review
This review article presents an overview of microsimulation modeling, focusing on the development and application …
This review article presents an overview of microsimulation modeling, focusing on the development and application of these models for health policy questions. Microsimulation models for health outcomes simulate individual event histories associated with key components of a disease process; these simulated life histories can be aggregated to estimate population-level effects of treatment on disease outcomes and the comparative effectiveness of treatments. The authors argue that methodological improvements in modeling approaches have been slowed by the…
Health Outcomes | Health/Medicine | Microsimulation | Calibration/Validation -
ArticlePublication 2009Cost-Effectiveness of Alternative Pregnancy Termination Strategies in Mexico City
This study evaluated the health and economic outcomes associated with three alternative first-trimester abortion techniques …
This study evaluated the health and economic outcomes associated with three alternative first-trimester abortion techniques in Mexico City using a computer-based model to simulate induced abortion and its potential complications. Strategies included alternative modalities for first-trimester pregnancy termination: hospital-based dilatation and curettage (D&C), hospital-based manual vacuum aspiration (MVA), clinic-based MVA and medical abortion using vaginal misoprostol. Outcomes included number of complications, lifetime costs, life expectancy, and quality-adjusted life expectancy. Assuming all options were equally available,…
Health Outcomes | Health/Medicine | State-Transition | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Maternal/Reproductive Health | Latin America & Caribbean -
ArticlePublication 2008Burden of Disease in Personality Disorders
The burden of disease in patients with personality disorders was investigated using a generic quality …
The burden of disease in patients with personality disorders was investigated using a generic quality of life measure. In a sample of 1,708 individuals with a clinical diagnoses of personality disorders the EuroQol EQ-5D (EQ-5D) was administered. The results showed that the mean EQ-5D score was 0.56 and that the total number of personality disorder diagnoses rather than the specific type of disorder determined the quality of life. The borderline personality disorder was not associated…
Health Outcomes | Health/Medicine | Mental Health | Europe -
ArticlePublication 2000Discipline of Cost-Benefit Analysis
Cost-benefit analysis is a general discipline, based on the use of some foundational principles, which …
Cost-benefit analysis is a general discipline, based on the use of some foundational principles, which are not altogether controversial, but have nevertheless considered plausibility. Divisiveness increases as various additional requirements are imposed. There is a trade-off here between easier usability (through locked-up formulae) and more general acceptability (through allowing parametric variations). The paper, by Amartya Sen, examines and scrutinizes the merits and demerits of these additional requirements. The particular variant of cost-benefit approach that is…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Economics/Finance | Preferences/Values | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Culture/Society | Government/Law -
ReviewPublication 1978Basic Principles of ROC Analysis
The limitations of diagnostic "accuracy" as a measure of decision performance require introduction of the …
The limitations of diagnostic "accuracy" as a measure of decision performance require introduction of the concepts of the "sensitivity" and "specificity" yet even these do not provide a unique description of diagnostic performance because they depend on the arbitrary selection of a decision threshold. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve is shown to be a simple yet complete empirical description of this decision threshold effect, indicating all possible combinations of the relative frequencies of the…
Test Performance | Health/Medicine | Clinical Care