Health Policy - Science topic

Accessibility to healthcare is one of the significant components of social determinants of public healthcare and is integral to societies’ overall well-being and economic prosperity. This study intends to assess changes in spatial distributions and accessibility of healthcare services within Qatar for 2010–2020, specifically concerning preparation...

Background Specialty care is a critical component of the healthcare system in the United States (US). Despite the frequency and importance of specialty referrals, disparities accessing specialty care have been reported across geographic regions and sociodemographic groups in the US. Methods The purpose of this study is to help inform health policy...

Epidemiology is fundamental to public health, given its invaluable information concerning the pattern, causes, and disease prevention among the population. This review aims to identify and discuss major epidemiological studies that have informed public health policies, interventions, and global health. It reviews different study methods, including...

Introduction Learning sites have supported intervention development and testing in health care, but studies reflecting on lessons relating to their deployment for health policy and system research (HPSR) in low‐ and middle‐income settings are limited. Methods This experience report draws from learning over three continents and five research and co...

Background Cervical cancer is a major health threat in the female population. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive women encounter a higher risk of cervical cancer. It is significant to promote cervical cancer screening attendance among HIV-positive women. Little is known about the awareness, attendance, and attitudes toward cervical cancer...

by a double-blind peer review process such that the journal does not disclose the identity of the reviewer(s) to the author(s) and does not disclose the identity of the author(s) to the reviewer(s). Abstract: Background & Objective: Depression is a prevalent issue among rural Bangladeshi women, exacerbated by socioeconomic challenges, cultural norm...

For many children with significant behavioral health needs, the inability to obtain funding for adequate behavioral health care through private means results in parents “voluntarily” placing their child in the state’s child welfare system. This study investigated the association between states’ use of 1915(c) Medicaid waivers for children with beha...

Background The use of low-value care (LVC) is a persistent challenge in health care. Health technology reassessment (HTR) assesses the effects of technologies currently used in the health care system to guide optimal use of these technologies. Consequently, HTR holds promises for identifying and reducing, i.e., de-implementing, the use of LVC. Ther...

Objective The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) publishes annual Unsupported Price Increase (UPI) reports on prescription drugs, which have gained attention from policymakers and healthcare stakeholders. These reports do not adjust for inflation in their analyses of net price changes. This study aimed to evaluate the economic contex...

Introduction As health systems strive to screen for and address social determinants of health (SDOH), the role of access to childcare and barriers to healthcare posed by childcare needs remains underexplored. A gap exists in synthesizing existing evidence on the role of access to childcare as a SDOH. Methods This scoping review aimed to examine an...

Objectives This study investigates the relationship between flat rate pricing for unlimited alcohol consumption in restaurants and bar and problematic alcohol consumption patterns identified by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted using data from the Japan...

Background/Objectives: Public health administrators are entrusted to oversee the fair and efficient implementation of public health policy. Professional standards rooted in social justice add an additional ethical standard beyond what is required by procedural equality, reinforcing a service culture of creativity and doing more with less when resou...

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a succinct analysis of European occupational health policy from 2018 up to 20221. This period has been one of the most complex since the beginning of the European integration process. Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine all had a profound impact and helped to highlight the strengths and wea...

There exists a need to research new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches that consider hemolytic disease of fetus and newborn (HDFN)'s physiopathology and focus not only on the pregnant person's immune system but also on the fetal immune system. This implies, in the final sense, to view the fetus as our patient. In spite of having found a safe and...

Support for a human rights framework for drug policy has been growing for some years. This year, the UNODC published a chapter in the World Drug Report focussed on the right to health. In this paper, we draw attention to the conceptualisation of the right to health for people who use drugs. While one essential element is access to appropriate, high...

Context Healthcare stakeholders in Latin America, including payers, manufacturers, and patients, seek to expedite access to technologies. However, uncertainty sometimes surrounds their true benefits and budgetary implications. Managed entry agreements (MEAs) are proposed to address this uncertainty by redistributing risks among key actors. Objecti...

El trabajo aborda la relación entre la salud mental y el rendimiento de los empleados, destacando que en 2019, aproximadamente el 15% de los adultos en edad laboral sufrían trastornos mentales, lo que conllevó a la pérdida de 12,000 millones de días de trabajo debido a la depresión y ansiedad. La investigación subraya la creciente preocupación por...

Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic created significant disruptions in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer (BC). Several public health measures were taken with limited evidence on their potential impact. In this observational study, we sought to compare the incidence of BC, treatment patterns, and mortality during 2020 versus 2018 and 2019. Met...

Background As the world’s population ages, there is a growing concern with frailty, marked by reduced strength and greater vulnerability to stress. Overcoming obstacles like reluctance towards screening methods in this process is crucial for identifying and addressing frailty at an early stage. Understanding older people’s perspectives can help ada...

Interoperability in healthcare is about ensuring that protected health information can be securely shared and integrated to enable patient-centered care while ensuring that individuals have access to and control over their health information. The following paper discusses how effective information management strengthens the communication provided b...

In this research, I examined the role of socioeconomic variations in the prevalence of stunting and underweight among children in Ethiopia. The study aimed to identify key health factors contributing to these disparities in child malnutrition by utilizing concentration indices, concentration curves, and regression-based decomposition analysis. Desp...

Cancer outcomes in Australia are among the best in the world, but this is not the story for all Australians, with significant disparities in cancer outcomes and experiences among specific groups in Australian society. The Australian Government developed the Australian Cancer Plan (the Plan) as a national approach to improve cancer outcomes and expe...

This article aims to explore the Fiqh approach to the issue of euthanasia within a medical context, given the increasing implementation and debate surrounding this practice globally. This study gains urgency from the significant growth in requests for euthanasia and assisted dying, raising profound questions about the criteria and conditions that p...

The health of students on campus is often threatened by stress and unhealthy living habits, such as poor sleep patterns or lack of physical activity. Students' health is important to their achievement and well-being. By using AI and machine learning algorithms such as Random Forest and Support Vector Machine (SVM), we can analyze health data more q...

The health of the self-employed is a key lever for economic and social development in Madagascar. This study explores disparities in access to healthcare between the self-employed and salaried workers, focusing on factors influencing healthcare-seeking behavior. The analysis is based on a survey of 418 participants, including 316 self-employed and...

Background Hip fracture is common in older people and has significant health and care implications. This study aimed to examine the impact of household characteristics (living alone or living with someone who is themselves ill) on adverse outcomes following hip fracture. Methods A cohort study of hip fracture patients aged ≥ 50 years living alone...

The mortality rate from ischemic heart disease (IHD) is increasing in both developed and developing countries. The US guidelines for physical activity are known to reduce the risk of IHD; however, no literature review has verified this. This meta-analysis aimed to examine the protective effect of adhering to the US guidelines for physical activity...

This study aims to identify and analyze nutritional and socioeconomic factors that influence wasting in children under five through a systematic literature review. Wasting, or low weight for height, is a form of acute malnutrition that is common in children in developing countries and negatively impacts their physical and cognitive development. Thi...

Objective The optimal management of the health system depends on its functions. The functional issues of Iran’s health system are organized in a scattered manner and it has many challenges, especially in the field of stewardship. In order to achieve sustainable health-oriented development, bold and smart policy reforms in the main components of the...

This report presents a comprehensive case study for the responsible integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into healthcare settings. Recognizing the rapid advancement of AI technologies and their potential to transform healthcare delivery, we propose a set of guidelines emphasizing fairness, robustness, privacy, safety, transparency, explainab...

This study analyzes hospital bed capacity and resource allocation using inflow and outflow indices to identify disparities in bed utilization. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for effective healthcare management, particularly in the allocation of specialized beds such as those in intensive care units (ICU). Despite a high bed-to-populatio...

Background: Cervical cancer is one of the leading causes of death among women in Indonesia, and factors such as parity and age at marriage are believed to play a significant role in increasing the risk of developing this disease. Aims: Examine the relationship among parity and age at marriage with the incidence of cancer of cervix by describing the...

The facets of COVID-19 have exposed deep structural flaws in the world health systems, weaknesses, and disparities of preparedness. The following paper looks at the various policies used in the global health security system before highlighting pitfalls observed and the strategies that can be used to solve the problem. Examining historical crises su...

The healthcare system should aim to offer all accessible, equitable, and optimal medical care to clients, in return is confronted with a plethora of common global threats that hinder the offer of healthcare by affecting the healthcare system's access, equity, and quality. This paper provides an exploration of prominent topics in global health syste...

New trends in public health are, therefore, leading to changes in both health and policy frontiers across the globe. These trends – from telemedicine to increasing social inequalities – require a more flexible approach to public health and the latter's regulation. This paper aims to identify and analyze various important new directions in public he...

Introduction: Worldwide, only 21% of countries report implementing policies that comply with human needs, while in Nigeria, only 10% of those with mental health disorders receive any treatment in a year. The Nigerian Mental Health Policy originated in 1991, the second in 2013, and this policy of 2023 is the third. It is built upon the legal framewo...

BACKGROUND The Andaman and Nicobar Islands reported the first coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) case on March 26, 2020. This study aimed to describe the epidemiological and clinical profiles of COVID-19 mortality that occurred during the first and second waves of COVID-19 pandemic and to compare the differences between them. MATERIALS AND METHOD...

Background Rare disease (RD) management and orphan drug development in India face various hurdles regarding the implementation and adoption of comprehensive policies, lack of dedicated regulatory frameworks, and absence of epidemiological data. Current rare disease policy focuses more on strengthening the diagnostics and lacks a proper comprehensiv...

Mental health and well-being should be the goal of the healthcare system to provide all possible, available, and sustainable quality care to clients; in exchange, faced with a myriad of similar threats experienced by healthcare systems across the world, it suffers from the failure to provide healthcare by compromising on the three; accessibility, q...

Public and Medicine are two related, specific but different areas of study that encompass the advancement of a healthier population. Public health aims to promote and prevent disease and disability in large population groups, while Medicine has mainly been disease- and illness-treatment oriented. This review aims to critically assess the history an...

Background: Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 (T2DM) is a global health problem that continues to increase. Suboptimal treatment can worsen the patient's condition, cause more serious complications, and increase the death rate. The role of various health professionals in the management of T2DM in the community is increasingly recognized as an important elem...

Background: Evidence-based decision making (EBDM) by frontline health managers is the need of the hour in India and similar low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) for effective health policies and programs and factors affecting it needs to be ascertained. This study aims to develop an instrument for assessing determinants of data use for EBDM by...

This research examined the mental health challenges of older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria using interpretive phenomenology. The consequences of these challenges on the quality of life of older people were also explored. The coping ability of older adults differs from younger adults during crisis which can cause severe hardship and...

Against the background of increased labor market flexibilization, health issues amongst employees have become a pressing social concern in Korea. Yet, little is known about the diversity in employment experiences and the associated health implications amongst employees. To accurately gauge labor market segmentation, whilst simultaneously accounting...

Aim Despite advancements in hepatitis C care, significant gaps remain, particularly in retaining people who inject drugs (PWID) in treatment, which hinders progress toward achieving the World Health Organization’s (WHO) hepatitis C elimination goals. The ADHERE (Attract pwiD Hepatitis hEalthcaRE) toolkit was developed to address these challenges by...

This practice paper reflects on an ongoing Participatory Action Research project that combines community-engaged methods, national data analysis and advocacy to support community-based emergency response to extreme weather events in 16 Indigenous communities in Alta Verapaz province, Guatemala. Our work points to a worrying predicament experienced...

En este artículo nos proponemos abordar los itinerarios terapéuticos de mujeres migrantes centroamericanas y sudamericanas en la región de Aysén, Chile, en particular nos centramos en el trabajo de campo realizado en la ciudad de Coyhaique y sus alrededores. A partir del empleo de metodología etnográfica se recuperan entrevistas y observaciones que...

Background Understanding the timing of first sexual experience is crucial for informing reproductive health policies and interventions. However, little is known about this area of research in Rwanda. This study aims to estimate the determinants of time to first sexual experience among female youths in Rwanda. Methods A secondary data analysis of t...

Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly applied in medical documentation and have been proposed for clinical decision support. We argue that the future for LLMs in medicine must be based on transparent and controllable open-source models. Openness enables medical tool developers to control the safety and quality of underlying AI models, while...

Background & aim Hepatitis B is globally recognized as a major public health problem that imposes a huge economic burden on society. China is a major country with hepatitis B infection; however, an updated overview of the economic burden of hepatitis B and related diseases in China has not been provided. This study aimed to provide a comprehensive...

We explore signatures of observational paradigms given quantum control and symbology for healthcare policy research within the realm of but not limited to Big Picture. This exploits the Pigeon whole principle, number theoretic constructs for topological perfection, resilience adaptivity and flexible ring theory for cloud utility given the power of...

Background To assess proportions of metastatic recurrence in women initially diagnosed with non-metastatic breast cancer by stage at diagnosis, breast cancer subtype, calendar period and age. Methods A systematic search of MEDLINE and Web of Science databases (January 2010–12 May 2022) was conducted. Studies reporting the proportion of distant met...

This paper evaluates the consequences of adopting a decentralised system of governance in advancing citizens’ right to health in Zimbabwe. Through the Inter-Ministerial Task Force that was established by the government to swiftly contain the surge in COVID-19 cases, this paper explores the achievements and challenges thereof. The Task Force derives...

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed various health risks and inequities experienced by international migrant workers. The number of migrant workers in the Republic of Korea (ROK) is rapidly growing and is expected to continue growing. Health related research on migrant workers in ROK is limited, especially among undocumented migrant work...

Background Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) was developed to protect public health policies from tobacco industry interference. The guiding principles of Article 5.3 emphasise a fundamental conflict between the tobacco industry’s interests and public health interests (principle 1) and recommend that the governme...

Hintergrund: Eine bedarfsgerechte Versorgung ist ein zentrales Anliegen der Gesundheitspolitik. Ein europäischer Vergleich der Inanspruchnahme medizinischer Leistungen kann helfen, nationale Daten einzuordnen und Handlungsbedarfe abzuleiten. Methode: Der Beitrag beschreibt Indikatoren zur Inanspruchnahme ambulanter und stationärer Leistungen, mediz...

Background Early life adversity has been shown to have long-lasting detrimental effects on a variety of biopsychosocial outcomes. Early adversity and its consequences may directly or indirectly affect cognitive aging and increase the risk of developing dementia in older age. Investigating the biopsychosocial outcomes associated with early adverse e...

Objective: to conduct a critical reflection on women's health policies and their intersection with mental health. Methods: this is a theoretical reflection, inspired by the literature that explores the scope of women's health policies and their intersection with mental health. Results: reflections were developed around two axes, such as "Women's he...

Background : children in Africa are mainly affected by epilepsy. This study describes the clinical and paraclinical profiles of epileptic children followed at the Neuro-Psychopathological Center of the University of Kinshasa (CNPP/Unikin). Method : a descriptive cross-sectional study analyzed the files of patients aged ≤ 15 years old admitted to th...

Nutrition is fundamental to a child’s growth and development. However, nutritional health is often compromised by acute and chronic conditions and treatments that can commonly result in malnutrition. Malnutrition encompasses undernutrition and overnutrition and may be exacerbated by food insecurity. Recent health policy efforts in the United States...

Background Inter-organizational partnerships and collaborations, used here interchangeably, have growing prominence across the health sector. Successful partnerships have received extensive study. However, especially for partnerships including nonprofit partners, limited attention has been given to negative factors that contribute to struggling par...

This study aimed to identify the relationship between the safety leadership of safety and health managers, the safety climate of the organization, and the safety behavior of workers in the electronics industry in order to develop a sustainable industrial safety and health policy. The study included 842 individuals working at electronics industry co...

Despite all the reproductive health policies implemented in our developing countries, uterine rupture (UR) remains a frequent occurrence. Uterine ruptures can take serious forms, threatening the prognosis of both mother and foetus. Among the many risk factors, the most frequently cited is scarring of the uterus. Most uterine ruptures occur during l...

Background Health system satisfaction is an important but understudied indicator of health system performance. It has far-reaching implications for sustainability but has been widely understudied particularly for non-European settings. Qatar represents a growing international experience of rapid development requiring steadfast system funding and re...

Objectives The COVID-19 pandemic may have influenced alcohol and tobacco consumption in low-income and middle-income countries, yet the effects are relatively unknown. In this study, we estimated the medium-term effects of the pandemic on tobacco and alcohol consumption in India. Methods We used data from the fifth round of the National Family Hea...

Background The alcohol industry uses many of the tobacco industry’s strategies to influence policy-making, yet unlike the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, there is no intergovernmental guidance on protecting policies from alcohol industry influence. Systematic assessment of alcohol industry penetration and government safeguards is also lack...

Objectives The research aims to understand the challenges and opportunities in policy and programme convergence to accelerate interventions for reducing stunting at the district, subdistrict and the 10 focused villages. Design Data were collected through qualitative methods (in-depth interviews and document reviews), and then analysed using themat...

The ease of purchasing packaged beverages can impact public health, especially when there is little information available about the health risks of high-sugar drinks. This study compares the laws regulating high-sugar beverages in Indonesia and Singapore to suggest improvements for Indonesian regulations. With growing awareness of health issues rel...

This pragmatic study evaluates the long-term effectiveness of two forms of psychoanalytically oriented therapy, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (PP) and Analytical Psychotherapy (AP), in routine care in Germany. Four hundred and twenty-eight patients diagnosed with various DSM-IV mental disorders were treated with PP or AP and provided annual self-repo...