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P Slaughter

Publications and source records attributed to P Slaughter.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

Distributional dilemmas in health policy: large benefits for a few or smaller benefits for many?

OBJECTIVES: To examine funding priorities assigned by health ministry officials when choosing between clinical programs that offer similar overall benefits distributed in different ways (e.g. large gains for a few versus small gains for many), and to compare the relative magnitude of any distributional bias to age biases. METHODS: A survey consisting of paired hypothetical health care programs was mailed to the 135 most senior officials of the Health Ministry in Ontario, Canada (population 11.5 million). Respondents were asked to assume they were members of a panel allocating a fixed sum of money to one of two programs in each pair. All program descriptions included the number of persons affected each year by a given disease and the average survival gains from the hypothetical programs. Some scenarios also mentioned the side-effects associated with programs and/or the average age of the beneficiaries. RESULTS: Four respondents had retired/died. Of 131 eligible respondents, 80/131 (61%) provided usable responses. Asked to choose between providing large benefits to a few citizens and small benefits to a great many, 23% (95% CI: 14%, 33%) of respondents were unable to decide, but 55.8% (95% CI: 47%, 70%) favored providing large benefits to fewer patients. Eliminating the 23% unable to decide, 47/62 or 76% (CI 63%, 86% expressed a distributional preference. With a smaller distributional discrepancy, indecision increased, with 35% of respondents having no preference and the remainder split almost evenly between the two programs. Other scenarios showed that health officials' pro-youth biases were only slightly larger than their distributional preferences and that distributional preferences were magnified when combined with minor differences in average ages of beneficiaries. CONCLUSIONS: A substantial minority of health care decision-makers had difficulty choosing between programs with similar overall gains and distributional differences--a result consistent with the utilitarian assumptions of cost-effectiveness analysis. However, when distributional differences were large, decision-makers clearly favored large gains for a few beneficiaries rather than small gains for many. Policy analysts should explicitly weigh distributional issues along with aggregate health gains when addressing resources allocation problems.

Administrative Personnel↗
PubMed1985

Low-dose guar improves diabetic control.

Twenty diabetic outpatients (12 non-insulin-treated and 8 insulin-treated) were given guar granulate in a dose of 10 g daily for two months in order to study the effect on glycaemic control and lipid levels. Mean glycosylated haemoglobin levels (HbA1c%) fell from 11.1 +/- 2.0% pre-guar to 10.5 +/- 2.2% (P less than 0.001) after one month on guar and to 10.1 +/- 2.3% (P less than 0.0001) after two months. Following discontinuation of guar, HbA1c% rose to 11.1 +/- 2.5% (P less than 0.002). However, there were no significant changes in fasting blood glucose, 1 h postprandial blood glucose following a test meal, 24 h urinary glucose excretion or in lipid levels. Gastrointestinal side effects occurred in 4 patients during treatment with guar. Four patients reduced their dose of insulin and 2 patients reduced their dose of sulphonylurea therapy during this time because of symptoms suggestive of hypoglycaemia. We suggest that the low dose of guar used in this study may help improve glycaemic control in diabetic patients and that this may be achieved with a low incidence of gastrointestinal side effects.

Blood Glucose↗
PubMed1984

A comparison of cholestyramine and probucol in the treatment of familial hypercholesterolaemia.

Twelve patients with familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) who had not achieved satisfactory cholesterol levels on dietary advice alone were treated with cholestyramine for 6 months and probucol for 6 months in a randomised cross-over study to compare the relative effectiveness of the two drugs. Over the 6-month period, mean total cholesterol fell by 16.4% on cholestyramine and 12.7% on probucol. Cholestyramine produced a 17.4% fall in low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, no significant changes in very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) cholesterol or high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, a 21.4% increase in HDL cholesterol subfraction HDL2 and a 24.1% increase in the HDL/LDL cholesterol ratio. Triglyceride levels rose by 29.6% but remained within the normal range. Probucol produced a 11.7% fall in LDL cholesterol, a 9.9% fall in VLDL cholesterol, a 10% fall in total HDL cholesterol, a 37% fall in HDL cholesterol subfraction HDL2 and no change in the HDL/LDL cholesterol ratio. Triglyceride levels fell by 14%. The mean corrected QT interval increased from 0.418 to 0.434 s (P less than 0.01) on probucol but did not change significantly on cholestyramine (from 0.405 to 0.41 s). The two drugs have different metabolic effects on FH. Cholestyramine has a more marked effect on LDL cholesterol, favourably influences the HDL/LDL cholesterol ratio and is therefore considered to be the drug of choice.

Cholesterol↗
PubMed1984

High carbohydrate-high fibre diets in poorly controlled diabetes.

Fifteen non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients with persistently elevated blood glucoses despite high doses of oral hypoglycaemic agents, were randomly allocated to a high carbohydrate-high fibre diet (HC) or a reinforced low carbohydrate diet (LC). After six weeks the diets were reversed for a similar period. Immediately preceding the study and at the end of each dietary period 24-h biochemical profiles were performed. In the 11 patients who completed the study, fasting and preprandial glucose, percentage glycosylated haemoglobin, VLDL cholesterol and mean 24-h triglycerides were significantly lower on HC than on LC or during the initial profile on their usual diet. There was no significant difference in any of the measurements on LC compared with the usual diet. Previous studies of high carbohydrate-high fibre diets in diabetes have been carried out in relatively well-controlled patients. These data show that poorly controlled non-insulin-dependent patients have an even more striking response.

Aged↗
PubMed1984

A comparison of isocaloric high carbohydrate and high fat test meals in diabetics.

Ten diabetic patients were given test meals at breakfast and lunch on successive days to compare the acute glycaemic responses to meals either high (65%) (HC) or extremely low (12%) in carbohydrate; the latter was very high (71%) in fat (HF). The meals were isocaloric and fibre content, though higher in HC, was within the range of the average British intake for both diets. The mean fasting blood glucose levels were similar on the 2 days (9.8 mmol/l; 9.6 mmol/l) but mean peak post-prandial levels were significantly greater after the HC meals (17.7 mmol/l after breakfast and 14.1 mmol/l after lunch) than after the HF meals (11.7 mmol/litre after breakfast; P less than 0.02; 8.1 mmol/l after lunch; P less than 0.02). Mean blood glucose value for the 6-hr study period was significantly higher after the HC meals (14.0 mmol/l) than after the HF meals (9.2 mmol/l; P less than 0.001). There was no significant difference in mean fasting, peak or total mean triglyceride level. In the short term, therefore, meals very low in carbohydrate and high in fat are followed by a lower glycaemic response than meals high in carbohydrate but with only a usual (22 g/day) fibre content. Delayed gastric emptying after HF meals may well contribute to the results but long-term use of such HF meals is not advised in view of the extremely high fat content.

Blood Glucose↗