Articles

Inequalities in access to water and soap matter for the COVID-19 response in sub-Saharan Africa

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread rapidly since the first case notification of the WHO in December 2019. Lacking an effective treatment, countries have implemented non-pharmaceutical interventions including soc...

Authors: Safia S. Jiwani and Daniel A. Antiporta

COVID-19 and informal settlements: an urgent call to rethink urban governance

Authors: S. Van Belle, C. Affun-Adegbulu, W. Soors, Prashanth N. Srinivas, G. Hegel, W. Van Damme, D. Saluja, I. Abejirinde, E. Wouters, C. Masquillier, H. Tabana, F. Chenge, K. Polman and B. Marchal

Salutogenic model of health to identify turning points and coping styles for eating practices in type 2 diabetes mellitus

It is important for people with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) to eat healthily. However, implementing dietary advice in everyday life is difficult, because eating is not a distinguishable action, but a chain...

Authors: C. M. M. Polhuis, L. Vaandrager, S. S. Soedamah-Muthu and M. A. Koelen

Living or deceased-donor kidney transplant: the role of psycho-socioeconomic factors and outcomes associated with each type of transplant

Kidney transplant improves patients’ survival and quality of life. Worldwide, concern about the equality of access to the renal transplant wait-list is increasing. In Iran, patients have the choice to be place...

Authors: Abbas Basiri, Maryam Taheri, Alireza Khoshdel, Shabnam Golshan, Hamed Mohseni-rad, Nasrin Borumandnia, Nasser Simforoosh, Mohsen Nafar, Majid Aliasgari, Mohammad Hossein Nourbala, Gholamreza Pourmand, Soudabeh Farhangi and Nastaran Khalili

Access to skilled attendant at birth and the coverage of the third dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine across 14 West African countries – an equity analysis

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) remains a critical public health goal that continues to elude many countries of the global south. As countries strive for its attainment, it is important to track progress in va...

Authors: Jacob Albin Korem Alhassan, Oghenebrume Wariri, Egwu Onuwabuchi, Godwin Mark, Yakubu Kwarshak and Eseoghene Dase

Is Nigeria prepared and ready to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in its conflict-affected northeastern states?

Northeastern Nigeria has over the decade suffered from the Boko Haram insurgency and is still in the process of recovery from the complex humanitarian crisis that has displaced and subjected millions of vulner...

Authors: Salman Jidda Tijjani and Le Ma

Why social justice matters: a context for suicide prevention efforts

Suicide is among the 10 leading causes of death in the US and has the potential to suddenly change many lives. It often occurs when people are disproportionately affected by societal conditions, including ineq...

Authors: Shirley Hochhauser, Satya Rao, Elizabeth England-Kennedy and Sharmistha Roy

Role of social and other determinants of health in the effect of a multicomponent integrated care strategy on type 2 diabetes mellitus

Although important advances in treatment strategies have been developed in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), large gaps exist in achieving glycemic control and preventing complications, particularly in low-and ...

Authors: Rubén Silva-Tinoco, Teresa Cuatecontzi-Xochitiotzi, Viridiana De la Torre-Saldaña, Enrique León-García, Javier Serna-Alvarado, Eileen Guzmán-Olvera, Dolores Cabrera, Juan G. Gay and Diddier Prada

How community sport programs may improve the health of vulnerable population groups: a program theory

Groups at risk of exclusion from society appear to have a lower health status and more health-related problems. Prevention efforts in these groups are not always successful, and new ways have to be sought by w...

Authors: Karen Van der Veken, Emelien Lauwerier and Sara J. Willems

Mobile health clinic model in the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons learned and opportunities for policy changes and innovation

Mobile Clinics represent an untapped resource for our healthcare system. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated its limitations. Mobile health clinic programs in the US already play important, albeit under-appr...

Authors: Sharon Attipoe-Dorcoo, Rigoberto Delgado, Aditi Gupta, Jennifer Bennet, Nancy E. Oriol and Sachin H. Jain

COVID-19: a plea to protect the older population

Authors: Daniele Carrieri, Fedro Alessandro Peccatori and Giovanni Boniolo

Israel’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic: tailoring measures for vulnerable cultural minority populations

Every country has vulnerable populations that require special attention from policymakers in their response to a pandemic. This is because those populations may have specific characteristics, culture and behav...

Authors: Ruth Waitzberg, Nadav Davidovitch, Gideon Leibner, Nadav Penn and Shuli Brammli-Greenberg

Costing of actions to safeguard vulnerable Mexican households with young children from the consequences of COVID-19 social distancing measures

COVID-19 has imposed unprecedented challenges to society. As the pandemic evolves, the social distancing measures that have been globally enforced, while essential, are having undesirable socioeconomic side ef...

Authors: Mireya Vilar-Compte, Víctor Pérez, Graciela Teruel, Aranzazu Alonso and Rafael Pérez-Escamilla

Financial risk of seeking maternal and neonatal healthcare in southern Ethiopia: a cohort study of rural households

Ethiopian households’ out-of-pocket healthcare payments constitute one-third of the national healthcare budget and are higher than the global and low-income countries average, and even the global target. Such ...

Authors: Moges Tadesse Borde, Eskindir Loha, Kjell Arne Johansson and Bernt Lindtjørn

“Pairing assistance”: the effective way to solve the breakdown of health services system caused by COVID-19 pandemic

The most terrifying thing about pandemic could be the large number of patients running against the health service system, which causes a serious shortage of health resources, especially medical personnel. Plot...

Authors: Tianxiang Chen, Ying Wang and Lei Hua

Prioritizing vulnerable populations and women on the frontlines: COVID-19 in humanitarian contexts

The COVID-19 outbreak has been declared a global pandemic and cases are being reported among displaced populations that are particularly vulnerable to infection. Humanitarian workers on the frontlines of the r...

Authors: Vandana Sharma, Jennifer Scott, Jocelyn Kelly and Michael J. VanRooyen

Complete vaccination service utilization inequalities among children aged 12–23 months in Ethiopia: a multivariate decomposition analyses

Although World Health Organization works to make vaccination service available to everyone everywhere by 2030, majority of the world’s children have been unvaccinated and unprotected from vaccine-preventable d...

Authors: Ayal Debie, Ayenew Molla Lakew, Koku Sisay Tamirat, Getasew Amare and Getayeneh Antehunegn Tesema

A “one stop liver shop” approach improves the cascade-of-care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians living with chronic hepatitis B in the Northern Territory of Australia: results of a novel care delivery model

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians are disproportionately affected by Chronic Hepatitis B (CHB) with a prevalence of 6.08% in the Northern Territory (NT) and liver cancer rates 6 times higher th...

Authors: Thel K. Hla, Sarah M. Bukulatjpi, Paula Binks, George G. Gurruwiwi, Roslyn G. Dhurrkay and Jane Davies

The challenges facing indigenous communities in Latin America as they confront the COVID-19 pandemic

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-2019) pandemic struck Latin America in late February and is now beginning to spread across the rural indigenous communities in the region, home to 42 million people. Eighty ...

Authors: Sergio Meneses-Navarro, María Graciela Freyermuth-Enciso, Blanca Estela Pelcastre-Villafuerte, Roberto Campos-Navarro, David Mariano Meléndez-Navarro and Liliana Gómez-Flores-Ramos

Exploring perceptions, barriers, and enablers for delivery of primary ear and hearing care by community health workers: a photovoice study in Mukono District, Uganda

Hearing loss is a prevalent but neglected disease, especially in low- or middle-income countries. The role of Community Health Workers (CHWs) to deliver primary ear and hearing care has been explored in severa...

Authors: James O’Donovan, Allan S. Namanda, Rebecca Hamala, Niall Winters and Mahmood F. Bhutta

Ensuring adequate health financing to prevent and control the COVID-19 in Iran

On February 19^th 2020, the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MoHME) has announced the first 2 cases of SARS-CoV-2, a novel emerging coronavirus which causes an infection termed as COVID-19, in Qom...

Authors: Masoud Behzadifar, Mahboubeh Khaton Ghanbari, Ahad Bakhtiari, Meysam Behzadifar and Nicola Luigi Bragazzi

Socioeconomic inequalities in hospitalizations for chronic ambulatory care sensitive conditions: a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature, 1990–2018

Hospitalizations for chronic ambulatory care sensitive conditions are an important indicator of health system equity and performance. Chronic ambulatory care sensitive conditions refer to chronic diseases that...

Authors: Lauren E. Wallar, Eric De Prophetis and Laura C. Rosella

The potential of mobile health clinics in chronic disease prevention and health promotion in universal healthcare systems. An on-field experiment

Mobile health clinics (MHCs) are recognized to facilitate access to healthcare services, especially in disadvantaged populations. Notwithstanding that in Europe a wide-ranging background in mobile screening un...

Authors: Chiara Bertoncello, Silvia Cocchio, Marco Fonzo, Silvia Eugenia Bennici, Francesca Russo and Giovanni Putoto

Preventable admissions and emergency-department-visits in pediatric asylum-seeking and non-asylum-seeking patients

Migrant health has become an essential part of public health. According to the World Health Organization, many health systems in Europe have not yet adapted adequately to the needs of asylum-seekers, which mig...

Authors: Julia Brandenberger, Kayvan Bozorgmehr, Florian Vogt, Thorkild Tylleskär and Nicole Ritz

Magnitude and determinants of multimorbidity and health care utilization among patients attending public versus private primary care: a cross-sectional study from Odisha, India

Multimorbidity in primary care is a challenge not only for developing countries but also for low and medium income countries (LMIC). Health services in LMIC countries are being provided by both public and priv...

Authors: Sanghamitra Pati, Subhashisa Swain, J. André Knottnerus, Job F. M. Metsemakers and Marjan van den Akker

Utilization profile of emergency department by irregular migrants and hospitalization rates: lessons from a large urban medical center in Tel Aviv, Israel

Irregular migrants (IMM) are excluded from the National health insurance in most developed countries and may use the emergency department (ED) as a source for medical care.

Authors: S. Shachaf, N. Davidovitch, P. Halpern and Z. Mor

To connect between worlds, to bridge over gaps: learning about the complex role of cultural mediators in perinatal health promotion from a case in Israel

Reduction of health gaps between ethno-cultural groups has become a major concern for health services, with a strong emphasis on eliminating social and cultural barriers and improving accessibility for diverse...

Authors: Hagit Peres and Rachel Sharaby

Ethnic inequalities in child stunting and feeding practices: results from surveys in thirteen countries from Latin America

Although the prevalence of child stunting is falling in Latin America, socioeconomic inequalities persist. However, there is limited evidence on ethnic disparities. We aimed to describe ethnic inequalities of ...

Authors: Giovanna Gatica-Domínguez, Marilia Arndt Mesenburg, Aluisio J. D. Barros and Cesar G. Victora

The politics and practice of initiating a public health postgraduate programme in three universities in sub-Saharan Africa: the challenges of alignment and coherence

In-country postgraduate training programme in low and middle income countries are widely considered to strengthen institutional and national capacity. There exists dearth of research about how new training ini...

Authors: Woldekidan Kifle Amde, David Sanders, Mohsin Sidat, Manasse Nzayirambaho, Damen Haile-Mariam and Uta Lehmann

Community engagement interventions for communicable disease control in low- and lower- middle-income countries: evidence from a review of systematic reviews

Community engagement (CE) interventions include a range of approaches to involve communities in the improvement of their health and wellbeing. Working with communities defined by location or some other shared ...

Authors: K. Questa, M. Das, R. King, M. Everitt, C. Rassi, C. Cartwright, T. Ferdous, D. Barua, N. Putnis, A. C. Snell, R. Huque, J. Newell and H. Elsey

Comprehensive primary health care and non-communicable diseases management: a case study of El Salvador

One of today’s greatest challenges in public health worldwide - and especially its key management from Primary Health Care (PHC) - is the growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). In El Salvador, sin...

Authors: Marta Jimenez Carrillo, Montserrat León García, Nicole Vidal, Keven Bermúdez and Pol De Vos

Can the reform of integrating health insurance reduce inequity in catastrophic health expenditure? Evidence from China

China’s fragmentation of social health insurance schemes has become a key obstacle that hampers equal access to health care and financial protection. This study aims to explores if the policy intervention Urba...

Authors: Jiahui Wang, Hong Zhu, Huan Liu, Ke Wu, Xin Zhang, Miaomiao Zhao, Hang Yin, Xinye Qi, Yanhua Hao, Ye Li, Libo Liang, Mingli Jiao, Jiao Xu, Baohua Liu, Qunhong Wu and Linghan Shan

Incarcerated Aboriginal women’s experiences of accessing healthcare and the limitations of the ‘equal treatment’ principle

Colonization continues in Australia, sustained through institutional and systemic racism. Targeted discrimination and intergenerational trauma have undermined the health and wellbeing of Australia’s Aboriginal...

Authors: S. Kendall, S. Lighton, J. Sherwood, E. Baldry and E. A. Sullivan

A nationwide cross-sectional study of 15,611 lesbian, gay and bisexual people in China: disclosure of sexual orientation and experiences of negative treatment in health care

Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people often face individual- and system-level barriers in health care. However, LGB people’s experiences of health care in non-European and non-American settings have been scar...

Authors: Yiu-tung Suen and Randolph Chun Ho Chan

‘The problem is small enough, the problem is big enough’: a qualitative study of health technology assessment and public policy on drug funding decisions for children

Public policy approaches to funding paediatric medicines in developed public health systems remain understudied. Current approaches to HTA present a variety of conceptual, methodological and practical problems...

Authors: Avram E. Denburg, Mita Giacomini, Wendy J. Ungar and Julia Abelson

Inequalities in reproductive health care use in five West-African countries: A decomposition analysis of the wealth-based gaps

Family planning and maternal care services have become increasingly available in West Africa but the level of non-use remains high. This unfavorable outcome may be partly due to the unaffordability of reproduc...

Authors: Oluwasegun Jko Ogundele, Milena Pavlova and Wim Groot

Cancer screening among racial/ethnic groups in health centers

Underserved and low-income population are placed at a disadvantage for receiving necessary cancer screenings. This study aims to measure the rates of receiving three types of cancer screening services, Pap tes...

Authors: De-Chih Lee, Hailun Liang, Nanqian Chen, Leiyu Shi and Ying Liu

Wealth-related inequalities of women’s knowledge of cervical cancer screening and service utilisation in 18 resource-constrained countries: evidence from a pooled decomposition analysis

Resource-constrained countries (RCCs) have the highest burden of cervical cancer (CC) in the world. Nonetheless, although CC can be prevented through screening for precancerous lesions, only a small proportion...

Authors: Rashidul Alam Mahumud, Syed Afroz Keramat, Gail M Ormsby, Marufa Sultana, Lal B. Rawal, Khorshed Alam, Jeff Gow and Andre M. N. Renzaho

Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in complex humanitarian crises

Authors: Danielle N. Poole, Daniel J. Escudero, Lawrence O. Gostin, David Leblang and Elizabeth A. Talbot

Mobile health clinics in the United States

Mobile health clinics serve an important role in the health care system, providing care to some of the most vulnerable populations. Mobile Health Map is the only comprehensive database of mobile clinics in the...

Authors: Nelson C. Malone, Mollie M. Williams, Mary C. Smith Fawzi, Jennifer Bennet, Caterina Hill, Jeffrey N. Katz and Nancy E. Oriol

Reproductive health and the politics of abortion

This editorial provides an overview of a thematic series that brings attention to the persistently deficient and unequal access to sexual and reproductive health services for young women in sub-Saharan Africa....

Authors: Astrid Blystad, Haldis Haukanes, Getnet Tadele and Karen Marie Moland

Towards universal access to healthcare for older adults: an assessment of the old-age exemption policy under Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme

Despite calls for governments to provide universal health coverage for all, social health insurance programmes (SHI) that specifically target older adults continue to be largely absent in many African countrie...

Authors: Fidelia A. A. Dake and Nele van der Wielen

A qualitative needs assessment of human trafficking in Ethiopia: recommendations for a comprehensive, coordinated response

Human trafficking is a global human rights violation that has profound health, economic, and social impacts. There has been little investigation of service needs and response options for human trafficking surv...

Authors: Kristen R. Choi, Dana C. Beck, Munmun A. Khan, Sue Anne Bell, Lemlem Beza and Michelle L. Munro-Kramer

Health, income and poverty: evidence from China’s rural household survey

Understanding the health status of the poor households and the influence of unhealthy on their income can provide some vital insights into the effectiveness and appropriateness of poverty reduction solutions.

Authors: Yang Zhou, Yuanzhi Guo and Yansui Liu

Examining user fee reductions in public primary healthcare facilities in Kenya, 1997–2012: effects on the use and content of antenatal care

In 2004, The Kenyan government removed user fees in public dispensaries and health centers and replaced them with registration charges of 10 and 20 Kenyan shillings (2004 $US 0.13 and $0.25), respectively. Thi...

Authors: Mardieh L. Dennis, Lenka Benova, Catherine Goodman, Edwine Barasa, Timothy Abuya and Oona M. R. Campbell

“At this age, a Moroccan woman’s life’s work is over”-older Moroccan-Dutch migrant women’s perceptions of health and lifestyle, with a focus on Ramadan experiences: qualitative research integrating education and consultation

Older Moroccan-Dutch migrant women exhibit high rates of diabetes, hypertension, overweight and obesity which is further compounded by their high risk of multi-morbidity. Healthcare professionals’ efforts to e...

Authors: Karlijn Koudstaal, Petra Verdonk and Edien Bartels

The roles of health maintenance organizations in the implementation of a social health insurance scheme in Enugu, Southeast Nigeria: a mixed-method investigation

In Nigeria, health maintenance organizations (HMOs) are the purchasers of health insurance with a social National Health Insurance Scheme for civil servants. However the roles of HMOs in implementation of soci...

Authors: Eric Obikeze and Obinna Onwujekwe

Prevalence and associated factors of self-treatment behaviour among different elder subgroups in rural China: a cross-sectional study

Self-treatment is a common and widespread behaviour, of which the risks are multiplied in old age. However, the determinants of self-treatment among elders in rural China remain unclear. This study aims to exp...

Authors: Wanchun Xu, Zhong Li, Zijing Pan, Ruibo He and Liang Zhang

How the choice of ethnic indicator influences ethnicity-based inequities in maternal health care in four Latin American countries: who is indigenous?

The current focus on monitoring health inequalities and the complexity around ethnicity requires careful consideration of how ethnic disparities are measured and presented. This paper aims to determine how ine...

Authors: Nancy Armenta-Paulino, Adela Castelló, María Sandín Vázquez and Francisco Bolúmar

Local health governance in Tajikistan: accountability and power relations at the district level

Relationships of power, responsibility and accountability between health systems actors are considered central to health governance. Despite increasing attention to the role of accountability in health governa...

Authors: Eelco Jacobs and Claudia Baez Camargo