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Biomedical subjects

M K Chen

Publications and source records attributed to M K Chen.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1985

The physician/population ratio as a proxy measure of the adequacy of health care.

In the absence of service use and health status data at the individual level in most developing countries of the world, the utility of the physician/population ratio as a proxy measure of health service availability and use in health needs assessment is tested. Data from 60 predominantly developing countries show that the physician/population ratio is curvilinearly related to an indicator of population health status, namely infant mortality. When this relation is linearized by logarithmic transformations, the physician/population ratio accounts for 53% of the variance in infant mortality. There is no significant functional relationship between the physician/population ratio and infant mortality when state-level data in the US are analysed. Implications of these findings are discussed with respect to needs assessment in developing regions of the world.

Developing Countries↗
PubMed1984

Masticatory handicap, socioeconomic status, and chronic conditions among adults.

Analysis of data from some 8,300 adults, ages 25-74, shows an inverse relationship between the probability of having a masticatory handicap and socioeconomic status: lower socioeconomic status is associated with higher probability of having a masticatory handicap. Further, adults with a masticatory handicap among the low socioeconomic group have significantly lower intakes, adjusted for age, gender, and body mass, of calories and some nutrients than the non-handicapped. In the former, there is also a higher probability of three dietary-related chronic conditions developing: hypertension, heart attack, and diabetes mellitus. A masticatory handicap appears to have little effect on nutrient intake or the development of the chronic conditions among the high socioeconomic group. The evidence suggests that masticatory handicap is an added risk factor among the low socioeconomic group for these chronic conditions.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Measuring the health care needs of an adult population in California.

An objective index of met health care needs based on specific conditions and symptoms medically judged to require medical attention was tested with data on an adult sample of the population in Alameda County, California. It was found that the needs of 81 per cent of subjects with symptoms of arthritis were met, whereas only 60 per cent of subjects with frequent leg cramps had their needs met. It was further found that age, regular source of care, medical insurance and perceived health status were associated with whether or not subjects with certain conditions or symptoms received medical attention. Policy implications of the findings are briefly discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

A quantitative index for evaluating patient care with longitudinal data.

This paper describes a patient-outcome based index of the quality of health care useful to health services researchers and planners. This index is applicable in any health care situation where longitudinal data are available from patients who can be classified into mutually exclusive stages of severity by functional status, psychological well-being or diagnosis and followed over a period of time. The rationale of the index is presented, along with an illustrative example based on a study on long-term care. The procedure for generating weights for the index is briefly described.

Data Collection↗
PubMed1979

Measuring need for health services: a proposed model.

Despite the emphasis of the National Health Planning and Resources Development Act of 1974 on need assessment as the basis of health planning, no valid measures of need for health services are currently available. In this paper a need measurement model is presented for the use of health services planners and researchers following a brief critique of two existing models. Data requirements for the model and in hypothesis-testing situations are described.

Health Planning↗
PubMed1978

A study of the health status of the black population in Alameda County, California.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the overall health status of blacks with whites in Alameda County, California, using an index based on the mortality and disability experiences of the two population groups. It is demonstrated that this index, which requires disease-specific mortality and disability data, can be easily adapted to make use of existing data files containing data on mortality and any indicator of morbidity or disability. It was found that in the year 1974, the blacks lost approximately 10,000 productive years unnecessarily through higher mortality and disability rates than those of the white population. This disparity between the two populations may be underestimated because Chicano/Mexican Americans, who are known to enjoy a lower health status than whites, were included as part of the white population. The implications of the findings are discussed.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1976

The K index: a proxy measure of health care quality.

An index of health care quality is described that requires data on "sentinel health events"--unnecessary death and disability caused by specific ICDA-coded conditions on which medical agreement can be reached about avoidability of negative outcomes. The proposed index combines measures of incidence, severity, and concentration of sentinel health events in communities and compares the measures with mean values for a group of normative communities, to arrive at index values that are distributed as X2 for a group of communities with regard to the mean health conditions experienced by the normative communities. Calculation of the index is illustrated with hypothetical data, and problems of selecting normative communities are discussed.

Activities of Daily Living↗