Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29378666›Full record

Observational studyBMC health services research2018

Supply factors as determinants of treatment costs: clinicians' assessments of a given set of referrals to community mental health centers in Norway.

Knut Reidar Wangen, Sverre Grepperud

Abstract readObservational Study
In one paragraph

Observational study in BMC health services research, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Knut Reidar WangenDepartment of Health Management and Health Economics, University of Oslo, P.O. box 1089, Blindern, 0318, Oslo, Norway. k.r.wangen@medisin.uio.no.ORCID 0000-0002-1950-5987
Sverre GrepperudDepartment of Health Management and Health Economics, University of Oslo, P.O. box 1089, Blindern, 0318, Oslo, Norway.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundPrevious works that uses patterns of prior spending to predict future mental health care expenses (utilization models) are mainly concerned with demand (need) variables. In this paper, we introduce supply variables, both individual rater variables and center variables. The aim is to assess these variables' explanatory power, and to investigate whether not accounting for such variables could create biased estimates for the effects of need variables.

methodsWe employed an observational study design where the same set of referrals was assessed by a sample of clinicians, thus creating data with a panel structure being particularly relevant for analyzing supply factors. The referrals were obtained from Norwegian Community Mental Health Centers (outpatient services), and the clinicians assessed the referrals with respect to recommended treatment costs and health status.

resultsSupply variables accounted for more than 10% of the total variation and about one third of the explained variation. Two groups of supply variables, individual rater variables and center variables (institutions) were equally important.

conclusionsOur results confirm that supply factors are important but ignoring such variables, when analyzing demand variables, do not generally seem to produce biased (confounded) coefficients.

Indexed as

Health Care CostsAmbulatory CareCommunity Mental Health CentersFemaleHealth Services AccessibilityHumansMaleNorwayOutcome Assessment, Health CareReferral and ConsultationLength of stayMental health care utilizationOutpatient servicesSupply factors

Identifiers

PMID29378666
PMCPMC5789684

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.