In contemporary policy discourses, data are presented as key assets for improving health-care quality: policymakers want health care to become ‘data driven’. In this article, we focus on a particular example of this ambition, namely a new Danish national quality development program for general practitioners (GPs) where doctors are placed in so-called ‘clusters’. In these clusters, GPs are obliged ...

The data presented in this article relate to the research article entitled “Risk of incident myocardial infarction by gender: Interactions with serum lipids, blood pressure and smoking. The Tromsø Study 1979–2012” (Albrektsen et al., 2017) [1]. Data quantify the gender differences in the risk of myocardial infarction (MI) in terms of incidence rate ratios (IRR), in subgroups defined by serum lipids, ...

Objective. To explore whether frequency and duration of sick-leave certifi cation for acute airway infections differ between general practitioners (GPs) in Poland and Norway. Design . Cross-sectional survey. Setting. Educational courses for GPs. Intervention. We used a questionnaire with four vignettes presenting patients with symptoms consistent with pneumonia, sinusitis, common cold, and ...

<i>Introduction - </i>In this study, we examined changes in depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) prescriptions over a time‐period when new professions started prescribing, and when the method gained some negative media attention.<br><br> <i>Material and methods - </i>The Norwegian Prescription Database provided data on hormonal contraception from 2006 through 2012. We estimated the annual number ...

Artifcial intelligence (AI)-based approaches can now use electrocardiograms (ECGs) to provide expertlevel performance in detecting heart abnormalities and diagnosing disease. Additionally, patient age predicted from ECGs by AI models has shown great potential as a biomarker for cardiovascular age, where recent work has found its deviation from chronological age (“delta age”) to be associated ...

Objectives - Introduced in the UK in 2010, the fit note was designed to address the problem of long-term sickness absence. We explored (1) associations between demographic variables and fit note receipt, ‘maybe fit’ use and long-term conditions, (2) whether individuals with long-term conditions receive more fit notes and are more likely to have the ‘maybe fit’ option selected and (3) whether long-term ...

<p><i>Background - </i>Little information exists about the experience of and risk factors for dental caries in young adults in Russia. We investigated dental caries experience and determinants in medical and dental students in North-West Russia. </p> <p><i>Methods - </i>This cross-sectional study included 442 medical and 309 dental undergraduate students of Russian nationality aged 18–25 years ...

The obesity epidemic is dynamic with varying secular trends and differences between countries and ethnic groups. The objective of this study was to describe the age- and sex-specific longitudinal changes in weight and waist circumference in a rural Norwegian population with a high proportion of the indigenous Sami population. Based on two population-based surveys, SAMINOR 1 (2003–2004) and SAMINOR ...

Background: A review of validated methods for assessing female sexual dysfunction and a review of male and female sexual dysfunction did not refer to any specific questionnaire for evaluating sexuality during pregnancy. A study was performed at the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of Botucatu Medical School, São Paulo State University, Brazil to design and validate a pregnancy sexuality ...

<p><i>Background</i>: Increasing mobile phone ownership, functionality and access to mobile-broad band internet services has triggered growing interest to harness the potential of mobile phone technology to improve health services in low-income settings. The present project aimed at designing an mHealth system that assists midlevel health workers to provide better maternal health care services by ...