Social science & medicine
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Social science & medicine · May 2018
Observational StudyBereaved relatives' decision about deceased organ donation: An integrated psycho-social study conducted in Spain.
Family refusal to organ donation of a deceased relative represents one of the most important barriers to organ transplantation. Although a large literature about family decisions has amassed, the existing evidence needs further integration and structuring. ⋯ Understanding of family decisions underlying organ donation may greatly benefit from a more complex, integrated, and theoretically based approach. Educational efforts should stress the need to register or simply communicate own willingness to donate organs. However, an adequate training and performance of the health-staff involved in the organ donation process may generate substantive differences in consent rates.
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Social science & medicine · May 2018
The effect of copayments on the utilization of the GP service in Norway.
We examine the effect of copayment on the utilization of the GP service in Norway. We use a regression discontinuity design to study two key aspects of the policy. First, we examine the overall effect of copayments on total utilization of the GP service. ⋯ Patients with general complaints and symptoms, chronic diseases and psychological diseases all react strongly to the copayment. The two latter groups capture patients with conditions that typically warrant medical attention. This paper thus suggests that the current flat fee copayment policy is inefficient at targeting unnecessary use of the GP service at the cost of patients with real medical concerns.