Health Equity: 02/26/08

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

[EQ] Health and Medical Research in Canada

Health and Medical Research in Canada

Edward Nason
RAND Europe's Health Research System Observatory, 2008

Available online as PDF file [54p.] at:

http://www.rand.org/pubs/documented_briefings/2008/RAND_DB532.pdf

This report provides an overview of health and medical research in Canada. The report is part of a series of country-specific reports available from RAND Europe's Observatory on Health Research Systems.

The report is divided into three parts:

- In the first part, the Structure of the Canadian Health Research System, including funding sources, sectors performing health
and medical research, and health research priority setting, is presented.

- The second part, Processes and Performance of the Canadian Health Research System, focuses on the types of funding
available and how funding activities are conducted, and provides exemplars of the system's performance.

- The third part presents an Outlook and considers current and emerging health research issues in Canada.

Summary: Key Points

􀁸 Funding by endowment; providing lump sums to research and funding from the interest on that sum as opposed to traditional research funding

􀁸 Prevalence of higher education field in funding research as well as performing research

􀁸 Focus on aboriginal health

􀁸 Translational activities; explicit focus on translating research to commercial gains through government funding

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This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics;
Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues. [DD/ IKM Area]

"Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is".Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members".
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[EQ] The fall and rise of US inequities in premature mortality

The fall and rise of US inequities in premature mortality: 1960-2002

Nancy Krieger*, David H. Rehkopf, Jarvis T. Chen, Pamela D. Waterman, Enrico Marcelli¤b, Malinda Kennedy
*Department of Society, Human Development and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

PLoS Med 5(2) February 2008: e46.doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050046

Available online at: http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050046

Background: Debates exist as to whether, as overall population health improves, the absolute and relative magnitude of income- and race/ethnicity-related health disparities necessarily increase - or decrease. We accordingly decided to test the hypothesis that health inequities widen-or shrink-in a context of declining mortality rates, by examining annual US mortality data over a 42 year period.

Methods and Findings: Using US county mortality data from 1960-2002 and county median family income data from the 1960-2000 decennial censuses, we analyzed the rates of premature mortality (deaths among persons under age 65) and infant death (deaths among persons under age 1) by quintiles of county median family income weighted by county population size.

Between 1960 and 2002, as US premature mortality and infant death rates declined in all county income quintiles, socioeconomic and racial/ethnic inequities in premature mortality and infant death (both relative and absolute) shrank between 1966 and 1980, especially for US populations of color; thereafter, the relative health inequities widened and the absolute differences barely changed in magnitude. Had all persons experienced the same yearly age-specific premature mortality rates as the white population living in the highest income quintile, between 1960 and 2002, 14% of the white premature deaths and 30% of the premature d eaths among populations of color would not have occurred.

Conclusions: The observed trends refute arguments that health inequities inevitably widen-or shrink-as population health improves. Instead, the magnitude of health inequalities can fall or rise; it is our job to understand why.

* * * *

“Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is".Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members”.
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    IMPORTANT: This transmission is for use by the intended recipient and it may contain privileged, proprietary or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this transmission to the intended recipient, you may not disclose, copy or distribute this transmission or take any action in reliance on it. If you received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email to infosec@paho.org, and please dispose of and delete this transmission. Thank you.