ABSTRACT
Objectives@#Aging is assumed to be accompanied by greater health care expenditures. The objective of this retrospective, bottom-up micro-costing study was to identify and analyze the variables related to increased health care costs for the elderly from the provider’s perspective. @*Methods@#The analysis included all elderly inpatients who were admitted in 2017 to a hospital in Tehran, Iran. In total, 1288 patients were included. The Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used. @*Results@#Slightly more than half (51.1%) of patients were males, and 81.9% had a partial recovery. The 60-64 age group had the highest costs. Cancer and joint/orthopedic diseases accounted for the highest proportion of costs, while joint/orthopedic diseases had the highest total costs. The surgery ward had the highest overall cost among the hospital departments, while the intensive care unit had the highest mean cost. No statistically significant relationships were found between inpatient costs and sex or age group, while significant associations (p<0.05) were observed between inpatient costs and the type of ward, length of stay, type of disease, and final status. Regarding final status, costs for patients who died were 3.9 times higher than costs for patients who experienced a partial recovery. @*Conclusions@#Sex and age group did not affect hospital costs. Instead, the most important factors associated with costs were type of disease (especially chronic diseases, such as joint and orthopedic conditions), length of stay, final status, and type of ward. Surgical services and medicine were the most important cost items.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: In the new concept of medical education, creativity development is an important goal. The aim of this research was toidentify a model for developing critical thinking among students with the special focus on learning environment and learning style
Methods: This applied and cross-sectional study was conducted among all students studying in undergraduate and professional doctorate programs in Fall Semester 2013-2014 in AJA University of Medical Sciences [N=777]. The sample consisted of 257 students selected based on the proportional stratified random sampling method. To collect data, three questionnaires including Critical Thinking, Perception of Learning Environment and Learning Style were employed. The data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation statistical test, and one-sample t-test. The Structural Equation Model [SEM] was used to test the research model. SPSS software, version 14 and the LISREL software were used for data analysis
Results: The results showed that students had significantly assessed the teaching-learning environment and two components of "perception of teachers" and "perception of emotionalpsychological climate" at the desirable level [p<0.05]. Also learning style and two components of "the study method" and "motivation for studying" were considered significantly desirable [p<0.05]. The level of critical thinking among students in terms of components of "commitment", "creativity" and "cognitive maturity" was at the relatively desirable level [p<0.05]. In addition, perception of the learning environment can impact the critical thinking through learning style
Conclusion: One of the factors which can significantly impact the quality improvement of the teaching and learning process in AJA University of Medical Sciences is to develop critical thinking among learners. This issue requires providing the proper situation for teaching and learning critical thinking in the educational environment