BackgroundPostpartum depression (PPD) affects 10-15% of women, is costly and debilitating, yet often remains undiagnosed. Within Alberta, Canada, screening is conducted at public health well child clinics using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. If screened high-risk, women are offered referral to their family physicians for follow up diagnosis and treatment.
Health care system decision makers face challenges in allocating resources for screening, diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C. Approximately 240,000 individuals are infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in Canada. Populations most affected by HCV include Indigenous people, people who inject drugs, immigrants and homeless or incarcerated populations as well as those born…
| Christopher McCabe
Comment in: The Inclusion of Spillover Effects in Economic Evaluation: A Public Health Economics Perspective
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a preventable disorder caused by maternal alcohol consumption and marked by a range of physical and mental disabilities. Although recognized by the scientific and medical community as a clinical disorder, no internationally standardized diagnostic tool yet exists for FASD.
Using sources ranging from the biblical Book of Judges (pre-1700) up until the first public health bulletin (1977), we seek to provide an overview of the academic debate around early historical accounts ostensibly attributed to the awareness of alcohol as a prenatal teratogen as well as to describe the social and political influences that sculpted developments leading to the public…
Early detection of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) enables access to early interventions for children. We assess the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ)’s ability to identify children with a NDD in population data.
| Arun Jesudian, Brett E Fortune, Nicole T Shen, Robert S Brown Jr, Russell Rosenblatt, Stephen Congly, Yecheskel Schneider, Yunseok Namn
Treatment options for recurrent ascites resulting from decompensated cirrhosis include serial large-volume paracentesis and albumin infusion (LVP+A) or insertion of a transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS). Insertion of TIPSs with covered stents during early stages of ascites (early TIPS, defined as 2 LVPs within the past 3 weeks and <6 LVPs in the prior 3 months)…
| Léon Nshimyumukiza, Jean-Alexandre Beaumont, Julie Duplantie, Sylvie Langlois, Julian Little, François Audibert, Christopher McCabe, Jean Gekas, Yves Giguère, Christian Gagné, Daniel Reinharz, François Rousseau
Yearly, 450 000 pregnant Canadians are eligible for voluntary prenatal screening for trisomy 21. Different screening strategies select approximately 4% of women for invasive fetal chromosome testing. Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) using maternal blood cell-free DNA could reduce those invasive procedures but is expensive. This study evaluated the cost-effectiveness…
The cost-effectiveness threshold in health care systems with a constrained budget should be determined by the cost-effectiveness of displacing health care services to fund new interventions. Using comparative statics, we review some potential determinants of the threshold, including the budget for health care, the demand for existing health care interventions, the technical efficiency…
Vertical transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV) can occur despite immunoprophylaxis in mothers with high HBV DNA levels (>5-7 log10 IU/ml). Quantitative hepatitis B surface antigen (qHBsAg) testing could be used as a surrogate marker to identify high viral load carriers, but there is limited data in pregnancy. We conducted a prospective observational study to determine…