BACKGROUND: Since 2011, a tailored, interdisciplinary head and neck rehabilitation (IHNR) program, covered by the basic healthcare insurance, is offered to advanced head and neck cancer (HNC) patients in the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI). This program is developed to preserve or restore patients' …

BACKGROUND: General Practitioners (GPs) play a key role in the healthcare trajectory of patients. If the patient experiences problems that are typically non-life-threatening, such as the symptoms of post-intensive-care syndrome, the GP will be the first healthcare professional they consult. The primary …

OBJECTIVES: To describe the types and prevalence of chronic conditions in an ICU population and a population-based control group during the year before ICU admission and to quantify the risk of developing new chronic conditions in ICU patients compared with the control group. DESIGN: We conducted a retrospective …

Background: Generally, a significant portion of healthcare spending consists of out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses. Patients indicate that, in practice, there are often some OOP expenses, incurred when they receive medical care, which are unexpected for them and should have been taken into account when deciding …

Background One way to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) is the implementation of health insurance schemes. A robust and up to date overview of empirical evidence assessing and substantiating health equity impact of health insurance schemes among specific …

Although homelessness is inherently associated with social exclusion, homeless individuals are rarely included in conventional studies on social exclusion. Use of longitudinal survey data from a cohort study on homeless people in four major Dutch cities (n = 378) allowed to examine: changes in indicators …

Background: Access to affordable and effective health care is a challenge in low- and middle- income countries. Out-of-pocket expenditure for health care is a major cause of impoverishment. One way to facilitate access and overcome catastrophic expenditure is through a health insurance mechanism, whereby …

Background: Stroke is not only an acute disease, but for the majority of patients, it also becomes a chronic condition. There is a major concern about the long-term follow-up with respect to activities of daily living (ADL) in stroke survivors.Some patients seem to be at risk for decline after a first-ever …

From Narcis.nl :" Patients with substance use disorder (SUD) are frequently suffering from co-occurring somatic disorders, increasing the risk of mortality. Somatic health care utilization (sHCU) often remains unknown to the physician during SUD treatment. This paper analyses sHCU and associated costs …

BACKGROUND: Many work-related items are not included in the current classification of environmental factors from the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Furthermore, personal factors are not classified and the ICF only provides a very limited list of examples. These …