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Biomedical subjects

B Mikaelsson

Publications and source records attributed to B Mikaelsson.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

[Insurance medicine training--a cost-effective initiative].

A training program in insurance medicine for younger physicians in clinical practice is presented. The program is individualized, problem-based and oriented towards clinical practice. Physicians participate in the program for two or five working days--depending on the level of clinical competence--and the following items are stressed: case reports with clinical insurance medicine aspects, knowledge of ordinary work places among the general population, training in early rehabilitation, and awareness of the process of certification for sick leave. During the past three years 73 physicians at all levels of clinical competence, mostly in the specialties general practice and occupational health, have passed the training program. There are many positive spin-off effects of the training, as well as substantial reductions in the rate of physician certification for sick leave and for early retirement pensions in the region. In 1999 the average level of sick-leave utilization was two days less than the national average, a reduction in relative terms by about 50% from 1996, when the regional level was 20% higher than the national level. In addition, during the period 1996-1999 the number of appeals of decisions of the Regional Social Insurance Office has been reduced from 33% to 6% of all decisions in which physician certificates for sick leave played a role. A nation-wide introduction of such a training program might possibly reduce the state expenditure for sick-leave insurance by 3 billion SEK on a yearly basis (about 10% of the current sick-leave related expenditure).

Certification↗
PubMed1990

Repeated short-term sick-leave and quality of life. An evaluation of a clinical socio-medical intervention.

The primary aim of this study was to evaluate a clinical socio-medical supportive program for repeated short-term sickleavers who exhibited no evident reason for their prolonged absence. Attention was drawn to changes in the quality of life of the participants. Ninety-nine persons took part in the full program. The sex distribution was even and the mean age was 32 years. The average number of days of sick-leave during the year preceding the entrance into the program was 28. The most common self-stated diagnosis was upper respiratory infection or gastro-intestinal problems. The evaluation showed a significant change for the better in the quality of life and well-being of the patients, although more than every other patient did not explicitly attribute any personal benefit to the intervention itself. The results coincide irrespective of measuring method and, are by and large, consistent over most areas of life and components of well-being assessed. Thus the design and the results of the evaluation look very promising concerning reliability, validity and especially sensitivity. A corresponding model may be applicable more generally when evaluating health- and medical care.

Absenteeism↗
PubMed1985

Atopy, occupation and domestic work as risk factors for hand eczema in hospital workers.

By means of a multivariate regression analysis, we have studied the importance of atopy, "wet" and "dry" occupations, and domestic work as risk factors for hand eczema. Hand eczema was identified by questionnaire. The studied cohort consisted of 2452 newly employed hospital workers with a median follow-up time of 20 months. Of the total cohort studied, 86% were female. The total occurrence of hand eczema in the 4 occupational groups studied were: nursing staff 41%, kitchen workers/cleaners 37%, office workers 25% and caretakers/craftsmen 17%. Atopic dermatitis increased the odds of developing hand eczema by 3 times in wet as well as in dry work. Subjects with atopic dermatitis developed a more severe hand eczema than subjects with atopic mucosal symptoms and non-atopics. Wet hospital work increased the odds by a factor of 2 compared to dry office work. 2 anamnestically available parameters of domestic work, namely "nursing of children younger than 4 years" and "absence of dish-washing machine" were found to significantly increase the risk of developing hand eczema. Wet work in combination with unfavourable domestic factors increased the odds by a factor of 4. The caretakers/craftsmen group, which was dominated by men, showed the lowest figure for hand eczema.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Predictability of school absence for rate of sick leave.

School absence was studied in all children in grade 8 (mean age 15 years) in the municipality of Linköping during the school year 1969-70. The mean absence rate was 51 lessons per year. At the mean age of 27 years, 11-13 years later, information from the Swedish Social Insurance Office was collected in a 25% random sample. The median rate of sick leave was 5.3 days per year, the median number of sickness spells, 1.7 per year, the median number of days per sickness spells, 3.0 and the median income 77 000 SEK per year. Spearman rank correlation coefficients were calculated, separately for women and men, between absence rate in grade 8 on the one hand and different rates of sick leave and income on the other. For women, rs ranged between -0.06 and 0.14, for men, -0.16 to 0.21. Thus the predictive ability of school absence for rate of sick leave was found to be very low.

Absenteeism↗
PubMed1984

Repeated short-term sick-leave as a possible symptom of psycho-social problems.

As part of a research project concerning repeated short-term sick-leave an intensive study has been performed aiming at estimating the frequency and character of psycho-social problems in a population with a minimum of six short sick spells during a 12-month period, in comparison with an age- and sex-matched sample of patients who went to the local general practitioner in the same area. The results show that psycho-social problems are twice as common in the group with repeated short-term sick-leave.

Absenteeism↗
PubMed1982

The prevalence of bronchial asthma and chronic bronchitis in an industrialized community in Northern Sweden.

The population living within a small area around a sulphite pulp factory in Northern Sweden was studied with regard to chronic obstructive lung disease. In persons in the age group 20-64 years the prevalence of bronchial asthma was found to be 3.0% for males and 3.2% for females. These figures correspond closely with previous studies in the Central and Southern Sweden. In the same age group the prevalence of chronic bronchitis was 2.8% for males and 1.0% for females, i.e. not differing much from that of other parts of Sweden. These findings, however, were far removed from the high prevalence of chronic bronchitis reported from Northern Finland, viz. 28.2% in males and 5.8% in females. The difference is probably attributable to differences in diagnostic criteria. In this study, those sulphite pulp factory workers who smoke seemed to constitute a population running a high risk of contracting chronic bronchitis.

Adult↗