Background: In 2005, India launched the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) to strengthen the primary healthcare system. NRHM also aims to encourage pregnant women, particularly of low socioeconomic backgrounds, to use institutional maternal healthcare. We evaluated the impacts of NRHM on...

A current popular theme in medicine concerns whether and how patients should be involved in treatment choice. Assuming patient involvement is desirable, how should one go about eliciting preferences? A variety of quantitative and qualitative methods exist that may be used for this purpose, one...

It has been suggested that home sharers, particularly spouses, act as substitutes for formal health and social care provision. This hypothesis was investigated in relation to three independent samples of elderly people, using comparable methodology in London (urban area) and Essex (semi-rural...

The observational study reported here was part of a wider evaluation of long stay care for elderly people. The observational study showed that it was essential not to rely on interview material alone. Qualitative techniques provided insights into behaviours, moods and interactions which would...

The objective was to investigate associations between type of area, individuals' perceptions of their neighbourhoods, and indicators of social and physical functioning. Social functioning was measured using numbers of social activities and frequency of social contacts in the past month. Physical...