Browsing by Author "Portela, Maria da Conceição Constantino"
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- Does austerity drives healthcare accessibility?Publication . Portela, Maria da Conceição Constantino; Fernandes, Adalberto CamposThe financial crisis may impact on healthcare systems, and challenge healthcare accessibility by increasing the percentage of patients with unmet medical needs due to the cost, the distance, and waiting lists. In order to analyze if austerity drives healthcare accessibility, we take annual data at country level, for Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Portugal, from 2005 to 2011 (n=56). The countries were clustered according to the external intervention during financial crisis. We consider a period ex-ante and another one ex-post crisis, and assess the difference in averages, by using the t Student test. This is followed by a correlation analysis by calculating Spearman’s coefficient, to assess if there is an association between the unemployment rate and the percentage of patients with unmet medical needs, considering the educational levels and income quintiles, regarding each one of the clusters. We found that during austerity there is an increase in the percentage of patients with unmet medical needs due to excessive cost, except for Germany and United Kingdom, but a decrease in the percentage of patients with unmet medical needs due to the distance and waiting lists. These figures were higher for low income and educational levels. For the cluster of France, Italy and Spain, the healthcare accessibility improves with increasing unemployment rates; but for Greece, Ireland and Portugal there is no association between accessibility and unemployment rate.
- Medicines compliance and reimbursement level in PortugalPublication . Portela, Maria da Conceição Constantino; Fernandes, Adalberto CamposDuring a severe financial crisis, it is a priority to use scientific evidence to identify factors that enable therapeutic compliance by patients. This study aimed to evaluate a possible association between the number of patients who attended a medical appointment and had medicine prescribed and the number of these same patients who purchased the prescribed medicine and whether the level of reimbursement was a deciding factor. We perform a correlation analysis at primary care centers in Portugal, between 2010 and 2012 (n = 96). We found a moderate to high positive association, which is statistical significant, between the number of the patients with medicines dispensing and medicines reimbursement levels. The correlation coefficient varies from.5 to.63 (P <.01). The compliance increases along with the increase in the reimbursement levels.
- Que soluções para o financiamento da inovação?Publication . Portela, Maria da Conceição Constantino; Fernandes, Adalberto Campos