Articles

Inequalities in access to safe drinking water in Peruvian households according to city size: an analysis from 2008 to 2018

Peru is one of the countries with the lowest percentage of population with access to safe drinking water in the Latin American region. This study aimed to describe and estimate, according to city size, socioec...

Authors: Akram Hernández-Vasquéz, Carlos Rojas-Roque, Denise Marques Sales, Marilina Santero, Guido Bendezu-Quispe, Tonatiuh Barrientos-Gutiérrez and J. Jaime Miranda

Trajectories of antidepressant use before and after a suicide attempt among refugees and Swedish-born individuals: a cohort study

To identify key information regarding potential treatment differences in refugees and the host population, we aimed to investigate patterns (trajectories) of antidepressant use during 3 years before and after ...

Authors: Ridwanul Amin, Syed Rahman, Magnus Helgesson, Emma Björkenstam, Bo Runeson, Petter Tinghög, Lars Mehlum, Ping Qin and Ellenor Mittendorfer-Rutz

Prevalence and sociogeographical inequalities of violence against women in Ecuador: a cross-sectional study

Violence against women (VAW) is a vast public health problem in Latin America. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of violence against women and to assess its sociogeographical inequalities i...

Authors: Agnes Edeby and Miguel San Sebastián

Correction to: Horizontal inequity in self-reported morbidity and untreated morbidity in India: Evidence from National Sample Survey Data

Authors: Veenapani Rajeev Verma and Umakant Dash

Promoting equity in breastfeeding through peer counseling: the US Breastfeeding Heritage and Pride program

In the United States, Black and Hispanic mothers have lower breastfeeding rates compared with White mothers. To address breastfeeding inequities, the Breastfeeding Heritage and Pride program (BHP) provides bre...

Authors: Elizabeth C Rhodes, Grace Damio, Helen Wilde LaPlant, Walter Trymbulak, Carrianne Crummett, Rebecca Surprenant and Rafael Pérez-Escamilla

Sharing power in global health research: an ethical toolkit for designing priority-setting processes that meaningfully include communities

To promote social justice and equity, global health research should meaningfully engage communities throughout projects: from setting agendas onwards. But communities, especially those that are considered disa...

Authors: Bridget Pratt

The benefits of an integrated social medical insurance for health services utilization in rural China: evidence from the China health and retirement longitudinal study

Improving health equity is a fundamental goal for establishing social health insurance. This article evaluated the benefits of the Integration of Social Medical Insurance (ISMI) policy for health services util...

Authors: Xiaojing Fan, Min Su, Yafei Si, Yaxin Zhao and Zhongliang Zhou

Cultural adaptation of health interventions including a nutrition component in Indigenous peoples: a systematic scoping review

Indigenous populations throughout the world experience poorer health outcomes than non-indigenous people. The reasons for the health disparities are complex and due in part to historical treatment of Indigenou...

Authors: Lisa Vincze, Katelyn Barnes, Mari Somerville, Robyn Littlewood, Heidi Atkins, Ayala Rogany and Lauren T. Williams

Socioeconomic inequalities in curative healthcare-seeking for children under five before and after the free healthcare initiative in Sierra Leone: analysis of population-based survey data

Socioeconomic inequalities between and within countries lead to disparities in the use of health services. These disparities could lead to child mortality in children under 5 years by depriving them of healthc...

Authors: Joel D. Bognini, Sekou Samadoulougou, Mady Ouedraogo, Tiga David Kangoye, Carine Van Malderen, Halidou Tinto and Fati Kirakoya-Samadoulougou

Integrating equity and social justice for indigenous peoples in undergraduate health professions education in Canada: a framework from a critical review of literature

Understanding how to create structural change by actively counteracting racialized ways of interacting with Indigenous peoples at an individual and organizational level within health care systems and health pr...

Authors: Amélie Blanchet Garneau, Marilou Bélisle, Patrick Lavoie and Catherine Laurent Sédillot

Financial protection effects of private health insurance: experimental evidence from Chinese households with resident basic medical insurance

After achieving universal basic medical insurance coverage, Chinese government put the development of private health insurance (PHI) on its agenda to further strengthen financial risk protection. This paper ai...

Authors: Xian-zhi Fu

Community support model on breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices in remote areas in Vietnam: implementation, cost, and effectiveness

Poor access to healthcare facilities and consequently nutrition counseling services hinders the uptake of recommended infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices. To address these barriers and improve IYCF...

Authors: Tuan T. Nguyen, Nemat Hajeebhoy, Jia Li, Chung T. Do, Roger Mathisen and Edward A. Frongillo

Trends and equity in the use of health services in Spain and Germany around austerity in Europe

Following the 2008 economic crisis many countries implemented austerity policies, including reducing public spending on health services. This paper evaluates the trends and equity in the use of health services...

Authors: Almudena Moreno, Lourdes Lostao, Johannes Beller, Stefanie Sperlich, Elena Ronda, Siegfried Geyer, José Pulido and Enrique Regidor

Medication risk management and health equity in New Zealand general practice: a retrospective cross-sectional study

Despite an overt commitment to equity, health inequities are evident throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. A general practice electronic alert system was developed to notify clinicians about their patient’s risk of...

Authors: Sharon Leitch, Jiaxu Zeng, Alesha Smith and Tim Stokes

Evidence‐based priorities of under‐served pregnant and parenting adolescents: addressing inequities through a participatory approach to contextualizing evidence syntheses

This study describes an interdiscursive evidence-based priority setting process with pregnant and parenting adolescents and their services providers.

Authors: Anna Dion, Aime Klevor, Amy Nakajima and Neil Andersson

Perceptions about the accessibility of healthcare services among ethnic minority women: a qualitative study among Arab Bedouins in Israel

Access to healthcare services has major implications for vulnerable populations’ health. Socio-cultural and gender characteristics shape the utilization and access of healthcare services among ethnic minoritie...

Authors: Haneen Shibli, Limor Aharonson-Daniel and Paula Feder-Bubis

Assessing healthcare access using the Levesque’s conceptual framework– a scoping review

Countries are working hard to improve access to healthcare through Universal Healthcare Coverage. To genuinely address the problems of healthcare access, we need to recognize all the dimensions and complexitie...

Authors: Anthony Cu, Sofia Meister, Bertrand Lefebvre and Valéry Ridde

“The devil is in the detail”: geographical inequalities of femicides in Ecuador

Femicide is a very important public health problem in Ecuador. Since regional and country-level femicide rates can obscure significant variations at the sub-national level, it is important to provide informati...

Authors: Osvaldo Fonseca-Rodríguez and Miguel San Sebastián

Breastfeeding inequities in South Africa: Can enforcement of the WHO Code help address them? – A systematic scoping review

Suboptimal breastfeeding rates in South Africa have been attributed to the relatively easy access that women and families have had to infant formula, in part as a result of programs to prevent maternal-to-chil...

Authors: Debbie Vitalis, Mireya Vilar-Compte, Kate Nyhan and Rafael Pérez-Escamilla

Innovations in the national household random sampling in Brazilian National Health Survey: results from Starfield and Shi’s adult primary care assessment tool (PCAT)

Several middle and upper income countries carry out household surveys that seek to trace the profile of access and use of health services. Probably one of the most ambitious examples is Brazil, with its Nation...

Authors: Luiz Felipe Pinto, Otavio Pereira D’Avila, Lisiane Hauser and Erno Harzheim

Health system responsiveness: a systematic evidence mapping review of the global literature

The World Health Organisation framed responsiveness, fair financing and equity as intrinsic goals of health systems. However, of the three, responsiveness received significantly less attention. Responsiveness ...

Authors: Gadija Khan, Nancy Kagwanja, Eleanor Whyle, Lucy Gilson, Sassy Molyneux, Nikki Schaay, Benjamin Tsofa, Edwine Barasa and Jill Olivier

A multi-center longitudinal study on responsive breastfeeding in China from the perspective of health equity: research protocol

Socio-economic inequities can strongly influence suboptimal infant feeding outcomes. Factors such as lack of knowledge about breastfeeding, low family income, low educational attainment, social and economic st...

Authors: Wen Shu, Menglong Li, Nubiya Amaerjiang, Xin Fan, Shunna Lin, Sofia Segura-Pérez, Rafael Pérez-Escamilla and Yifei Hu

Breastfeeding at the workplace: a systematic review of interventions to improve workplace environments to facilitate breastfeeding among working women

Breastfeeding can be affected by maternal employment. This is important considering that in 2019, 47.1% of women globally participated in the labor force. The aim of this study was to review workplace interven...

Authors: Mireya Vilar-Compte, Sonia Hernández-Cordero, Mónica Ancira-Moreno, Soraya Burrola-Méndez, Isabel Ferre-Eguiluz, Isabel Omaña and Cecilia Pérez Navarro

Distribution of under-5 deaths in the neonatal, postneonatal, and childhood periods: a multicountry analysis in 64 low- and middle-income countries

As under-5 mortality rates declined all over the world, the relative distribution of under-5 deaths during different periods of life changed. To provide information for policymakers to plan for multi-layer hea...

Authors: Zhihui Li, Omar Karlsson, Rockli Kim and S. V. Subramanian

Fifteen-year trends in self-reported racism and link with health and well-being of African Canadian adolescents: a secondary data analysis

We assessed the prevalence and trends in racial discrimination among African Canadian adolescents in British Columbia. The association between racial discrimination and self-rated health, access to mental heal...

Authors: Helen U. Okoye and Elizabeth Saewyc

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food rations of refugees in Rwanda

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has significantly impacted the global economy, by forcing people to stay indoors and creating a ‘new normal’ of living. Rwanda has made notable efforts to fight the pandemic....

Authors: Emery Manirambona, Theogene Uwizeyimana, Emmanuel Uwiringiyimana and Henna Reddy

Income-related health inequality among Chinese adults during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence based on an online survey

Partial- or full-lockdowns, among other interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic, may disproportionally affect people (their behaviors and health outcomes) with lower socioeconomic status (SES). This study e...

Authors: Peng Nie, Lanlin Ding, Zhuo Chen, Shiyong Liu, Qi Zhang, Zumin Shi, Lu Wang, Hong Xue, Gordon G. Liu and Youfa Wang

Associations of psychosocial factors, knowledge, attitudes and practices with hospitalizations in internal medicine divisions in different population groups in Israel

Inequalities in healthcare utilization exist across ethnic groups; however, the contributions of health-related knowledge and psychosocial factors to these inequalities remain unclear. We examined associations...

Authors: Shira Sagie, Wasef Na’amnih, Juda Frej, Gershon Alpert and Khitam Muhsen

Needs and resources of people with type 2 diabetes in peri-urban Cochabamba, Bolivia: a people-centred perspective

The rising prevalence of type 2 diabetes results in a worldwide public healthcare crisis, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) with unprepared and overburdened health systems mainly focused o...

Authors: Christine Cécile Leyns, Niek Couvreur, Sara Willems and Ann Van Hecke

“This is my boy’s health! Talk straight to me!” perspectives on accessible and culturally safe care among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients of clinical genetics services

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people do not enjoy equal access to specialist health services that adequately meet their needs. Clinical genetics services are at the vanguard of realising the health ben...

Authors: Philippa Dalach, Ravi Savarirayan, Gareth Baynam, Julie McGaughran, Emma Kowal, Libby Massey, Misty Jenkins, Yin Paradies and Margaret Kelaher

Inequalities in antenatal care coverage and quality: an analysis from 63 low and middle-income countries using the ANCq content-qualified coverage indicator

Antenatal care (ANC) is an essential intervention associated with a reduction of maternal and new-born morbidity and mortality. However, evidence suggested substantial inequalities in maternal and child health...

Authors: Luisa Arroyave, Ghada E. Saad, Cesar G. Victora and Aluisio J. D. Barros

Analysis of equity and social inclusiveness of national urban development policies and strategies through the lenses of health and nutrition

Rapid urbanization increases competition for scarce urban resources and underlines the need for policies that promote equitable access to resources. This study examined equity and social inclusion of urban dev...

Authors: Obinna Onwujekwe, Chinyere Ojiugo Mbachu, Chukwuedozie Ajaero, Benjamin Uzochukwu, Prince Agwu, Juliana Onuh, Charles Tochukwu Orjiakor, Aloysius Odii and Tolib Mirzoev

Measuring health care experiences that matter to Indigenous people in Australia with cancer: identifying critical gaps in existing tools

Measurement of patients’ healthcare experiences is increasingly used as an indicator of quality of care, but there are concerns that existing measures omit information that is meaningful to patients and that r...

Authors: Monica Green, Joan Cunningham, Kate Anderson, Kalinda Griffiths and Gail Garvey

Predictors of death at home among cancer patients in Israel: a population-based study

Most cancer patients prefer to die at home; however, many die in hospital. The aim of the current study is to elucidate the association between dying at home and various personal factors in the Israeli populat...

Authors: Yakir Rottenberg, Gil Goldzweig and Adir Shaulov

Gender intentional approaches to enhance health social enterprises in Africa: a qualitative study of constraints and strategies

Health social enterprises are experimenting with community health worker (CHW) models that allow for various income-generating opportunities to motivate and incentivize CHWs. Although evidence shows that impro...

Authors: Kevin McKague, Sarah Harrison and Jenipher Musoke

Correction to: A qualitative study of barriers to employment experienced by people living with HIV in Toronto and Ottawa

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Authors: Melissa Perri, Amy Craig-Neil, Mark Gaspar, Charlotte Hunter, Claire Kendall, Ower Alexander and Andrew D. Pinto

The convergence of racial and income disparities in health insurance coverage in the United States

This study applied the vulnerability framework and examined the combined effect of race and income on health insurance coverage in the US.

Authors: De-Chih Lee, Hailun Liang and Leiyu Shi

The financing need of equitable provision of paid maternal leave in the informal sector in Indonesia: a comparison of estimation methods

Providing an enabling environment for breastfeeding is hampered by the inequitable implementation of paid maternity leave, primarily due to perceived or actual financial costs. To estimate the real cost of pai...

Authors: Adiatma Y. M. Siregar, Pipit Pitriyan, Donny Hardiawan, Paul Zambrano and Roger Mathisen

Understanding inequities in health and health systems in Latin America and the Caribbean: a thematic series

Latin America, with its culturally and ethnically diverse populations, its burgeoning economies, high levels of violence, growing political instability, and its striking levels of inequality, is a region that ...

Authors: Ana Lorena Ruano, Daniela Rodríguez, Pablo Gaitán Rossi and Daniel Maceira

The enrolment gap: who is not enrolling with primary health organizations in Aotearoa New Zealand and what are the implications? An exploration of 2015–2019 administrative data

Primary Health Care (PHC) is the entry point to accessing health services in many countries. Having a high proportion of the population enrolled with a PHC provider is key to ensuring PHC fulfils this role and...

Authors: Maite Irurzun-Lopez, Mona Jeffreys and Jacqueline Cumming

Improving support for breastfeeding mothers: a qualitative study on the experiences of breastfeeding among mothers who reside in a deprived and culturally diverse community

The United Kingdom has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in Europe, with the initiation and continuation of breastfeeding shown to be closely related to the mothers’ age, ethnicity and social class. Whilst...

Authors: Erica Jane Cook, Faye Powell, Nasreen Ali, Catrin Penn-Jones, Bertha Ochieng and Gurch Randhawa

Gender-based disparities on health indices during COVID-19 crisis: a nationwide cross-sectional study in Jordan

COVID-19 has an inevitable burden on public health, potentially widening the gender gap in healthcare and the economy. We aimed to assess gender-based desparities during COVID-19 in Jordan in terms of health i...

Authors: Mohammad Abufaraj, Zaid Eyadat, Mohammed Qussay Al-sabbagh, Abdullah Nimer, Immanuel Azaad Moonesar, Lin Yang, Walid Al Khatib and Ra’eda Al-Qutob

How prepared is Mozambique to treat COVID-19 patients? A new approach for estimating oxygen service availability, oxygen treatment capacity, and population access to oxygen-ready treatment facilities

This study aims to assess the COVID-19 response preparedness of the Mozambican health system by 1) determining the location of oxygen-ready public health facilities, 2) estimating the oxygen treatment capacity...

Authors: Langan Denhard, Parisa Kaviany, Sérgio Chicumbe, Cláudio Muianga, Guitunga Laisse, Kyle Aune and Ashley Sheffel

Using a biopsychosocial approach to examine differences in post-traumatic stress symptoms between Arab and Jewish Israeli mothers following a child’s traumatic medical event

Parents of children following traumatic medical events (TMEs) are known to be at high risk for developing severe post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Findings on the negative impact of TMEs on parents’ PTSS ...

Authors: Sewar Hussein, Yaara Sadeh, Rachel Dekel, Efrat Shadmi, Amichai Brezner, Jana Landa and Tamar Silberg

Private health care market shaping and changes in inequities in childhood diarrhoea treatment coverage: evidence from the analysis of baseline and endline surveys of an ORS and zinc scale-up program in Nigeria

Nearly 90,000 under-five children die from diarrhoea annually in Nigeria. Over 90% of the deaths can be prevented with oral rehydration salt (ORS) and zinc treatment but coverage nationally was less than 34% f...

Authors: Tiwadayo Braimoh, Isaac Danat, Mohammed Abubakar, Obinna Ajeroh, Melinda Stanley, Owens Wiwa, Marta Rose Prescott and Felix Lam

Changing men or changing health systems? A scoping review of interventions, services and programmes targeting men’s health in sub-Saharan Africa

Sex and gender have been shown to influence health literacy, health seeking behaviour, and health outcomes. However, research examining the links between gender and health has mainly focused on women’s health,...

Authors: Thierry Beia, Karina Kielmann and Karin Diaconu

Policy disparities in response to the first wave of COVID-19 between China and Germany

Our research summarized policy disparities in response to the first wave of COVID-19 between China and Germany. We look forward to providing policy experience for other countries still in severe epidemics.

Authors: Yuyao Zhang, Leiyu Shi, Haiqian Chen, Xiaohan Wang and Gang Sun

Addressing data and methodological limitations in estimating catastrophic health spending and impoverishment in India, 2004–18

Estimates of catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) are counterintuitive to researchers, policy makers, and developmental partners due to data and methodological limitation. While inferences drawn from use of c...

Authors: Sanjay K. Mohanty and Laxmi Kant Dwivedi

Healthcare inequities and barriers to access for homeless individuals: a qualitative study in Barcelona (Spain)

In Spain, homeless individuals have lower perceived quality of health than the rest of the population and their life expectancy is 30 years lower than the national average. While the Spanish health system prov...

Authors: Andrés Cernadas and Ángela Fernández

Adapting breastfeeding support in areas of socio-economic deprivation: a case study approach

There are inequalities in breastfeeding initiation and continuation rates, whereby socio-economically disadvantaged mothers are least likely to breastfeed. Breastfeeding peer support (BPS) interventions are re...

Authors: Louise Hunt, Gill Thomson, Karen Whittaker and Fiona Dykes