RELATION OF TYPE OF REPORTED ILLNESSES TO PATTERN OF USE OF THE STUDENT HEALTH CENTER BY THE INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AT TEXAS SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY, HOUSTON, TEXAS

The state of knowledge on the relation of stress factors, health problems and health service utilization among university students is limited. Special problems of stress exist for the international students due to their having to adjust to a new environment. It is this latter problem area that provides the focus for this study. Recognizing there are special stress factors affecting the international students, it is first necessary to see if the problems of cultural adaptation affect them to any greater degree than American students attending the same university.^ To make the comparison, the study identified a number of health problems of both American and international students and related their frequency to the use of the Student Health Center. The expectation was that there would be an association between the number of health problems and the number of life change events experienced by these students and between the number of health problems and stresses from social factors. It was also expected that the number of health problems would decline with the amount of social support.^ The population chosen were students newly enrolled in Texas Southern University, Houston, Texas in the Fall Semester of 1979. Two groups were selected at random: 126 international and 126 American students. The survey instrument was a self-administered questionnaire. The response rate was 90% (114) for the international and 94% (118) for the American students.^ Data analyses consisted of both descriptive and inferential statistics. Chi-squares and correlation coefficients were the statistics used in comparing the international students and the American students.^ There was a weak association between the number of health problems and the number of life change events, as reported by both the international and the American students. The study failed to show any statistically significant association between the number of stress from social factors and the number of health problems. It also failed to show an association between the number of health problems and the amount of social support. These findings applied to both the international and the American students.^ One unexpected finding was that certain health problems were reported by more American than international students. There were: cough, diarrhea, and trouble in sleeping. Another finding was that those students with health insurance had a higher level of utilization of the Health Center than those without health insurance. More international than American students utilized the Student Health Center.^ In comparing the women students, there was no statistical significant difference in their reported fertility related health problems.^ The investigator recommends that in follow-up studies, instead of grouping all international students together, that they be divided by major nationalities represented in the student body; that is, Iranians, Nigerians and others. ^

International comparison of wait times and quality of care: A pilot study

During the healthcare reform debate in the United States in 2009/2010, many health policy experts expressed a concern that expanding coverage would increase waiting times for patients to obtain care. Many complained that delays in obtaining care in turn would compromise the quality of healthcare in the United States. Using data from The Commonwealth Fund 2010 International Health Policy Survey in Eleven Countries, this study explored the relationship between wait times and quality of care, employing a wait time scale and several quality of care indicators present in the dataset. The impact of wait times on quality was assessed. Increased wait time was expected to reduce quality of care. However, this study found that wait times correlated with better health outcomes for some measures, and had no association with others. Since this is a pilot study and statistical significance was not achieved for any of the correlations, further research is needed to confirm and deepen the findings. However, if future studies confirm this finding, an emphasis on reducing wait times at the expense of other health system level performance variables may be inappropriate. ^