Methods: Individual-person-level data for the entire Danish privately employed, full-time working population is used in an observational design. The effect of having employer-paid health insurance on the AZD8055 manufacturer utilisation of public hospitals is estimated using propensity score matching in order to control for risk selection, based on a number of individual- and company-level characteristics. The outcome is defined as the total consumption of health care services provided by public hospitals.

Results: The effect of employer-paid health insurance is estimated

to correspond to a significant 10% reduction in the total use of public hospitals. The effect appears to be robust to alternative methodological specifications and is supported from the analysis of alternative outcome measures.

Conclusion: The rise in the number of individuals with employer-paid health insurance seems to have alleviated the pressure on public hospitals in Denmark. Future studies should confirm the magnitude of this effect, preferably

based on empirical data with repeated measurements of insurance status. (C) 2013 selleck chemicals Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“The current wear-testing standard (ISO18192-1) for total disc replacement (TDR) requires only four degrees of freedom (DOF) inputs: axial load, flexion-extension, lateral bending and axial rotation. The study aim was to assess the effect of an additional DOF, anterior-posterior (AP) shear on the wear of the ProDisc-L TDR. A 5DOF simulator was used to test ProDisc-L implants under 4DOF and 5DOF conditions. The 4DOF conditions were BI 2536 research buy defined by ISO18192-1 whilst

the 5DOF used ISO18192-1 conditions with the addition of an AP load of +175 and -140 N (anterior and posterior, respectively), extrapolated from in vivo data. The implants were mounted such that the polyethylene insert could be removed for gravimetric measurements. Tests were run using bovine serum (15 g/l protein concentration) as a lubricant for five million cycles (MC), with measurements repeated every 1 MC. The mean wear rate in the 4DOF test was 12.7 +/- A 2.1 mg/MC compared to 11.6 +/- A 1.2 mg/MC in the 5DOF test. There were marked differences in the wear scars between 4DOF and 5DOF simulations. With 4DOF, wear scars were centralised on the dome of the insert, whilst 5DOF scars were larger, breaching the anterior rim of the dome causing deformation at the edge. The 4DOF wear test showed similar gravimetric wear rates to previously published ISO-tested TDRs. The addition of AP load was found to have no significant effect on the overall wear rate. However, there were pronounced differences in the respective wear scars, which highlights the need for more research in order to understand the factors that influence wear of TDR.