Health Equity: 05/06/08

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

[EQ] Equitable access: research challenges for health in developing countries

Report on Forum 11. Equitable access: research challenges for health in developing countries

Global Forum for Health Research, 2008

Available online as PDF file at: http://www.globalforumhealth.org/filesupld/forum11/Forum11_Report.pdf

This Forum 11 report provides an overview and synthesis of the key issues discussed and conclusions reached in 2007, Beijing, People's Republic of China. Organized at the invitation of the Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China, it drew 620 participants from close to 80 countries to discuss research issues, best practices and gaps in securing equitable access to health.

Contents

Introduction

The need for evidence

The biggest developing country in the world

The need for coherence

Chapter 1 – The broader determinants of health

The impact of poverty

No evidence that globalization has helped the poor

Tuberculosis in China: a globalization lesson?

Tobacco use: cause of mortality, morbidity – and poverty

The importance of gender

Uncovering domestic violence

Will research decrease maternal deaths?

Political determinants

The complexity of health worker migration

How Sultanabad got its sewer line

Chapter 2 – Innovation and its impact

Patents: another track, another voice

Verbal autopsy and AIDS

Primary health care’s rejuvenation

Chapter 3 – Zeroing in on health systems

How to measure what is not clear

A financial assessment

The research/policy interface

Learning from policies and products: HPV-HIV vaccines

China’s health system reform

Chapter 4 – The information gap

Mortality statistics: unreliable, incomplete, lacking

SARStrans: sharing limited knowledge

Information for advocacy?

Barriers to health journalism

Chapter 5 – The future of research

Chapter 6 – Reflections

Afterword: search and research

The Forum 11 Report includes a user-friendly CD-ROM that features the FORUM 11 final meeting documents.

Order hard copy here: http://www.globalforumhealth.org/hide/common/forms/orderpub/orderform.php

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information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
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“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
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[EQ] Physical Activity Interventions in Latin America

Physical Activity Interventions in Latin America

A Systematic Review

Christine M. Hoehner, Jesus Soares, Diana Parra Perez, Isabela C. Ribeiro, Corinne E. Joshu, Michael Pratt, Branka D. Legetic,

Deborah Carvalho Malta, Victor R. Matsudo, Luiz Roberto Ramos, Eduardo J. Simões, Ross C. Brownson

Am J Prev Med 2008;34(3):224–233- 2008 American Journal of Preventive Medicine

Website: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600644/description?navopenmenu=-2

Available online at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B6VHT-4RSS76V-9-8&_cdi=6075&_user=3824252&_orig=browse&_coverDate=03%2F31%2F2008&_sk=999659996&view=c&wchp=dGLbVtb-zSkzV&md5=8b2786c467401b419d524e1c3148d72c&ie=/sdarticle.pdf

Background: Recommendations for physical activity in the Guide to Community Preventive Services (the Community Guide) have not been systematically xamined or applied in developing countries such as those in Latin America. The aim of this systematic review was to assess the current evidence base concerning interventions to increase physical activity in Latin America using a modified Community Guide process and to develop evidence-based recommendations for physical activity interventions.

Methods: In 2006, a literature review of both peer-reviewed and non–peer-reviewed literature in Portuguese, Spanish, and English was carried out to identify physical activity interventions conducted in community settings in Latin America. Intervention studies were identified by searching ten databases using 16 search terms related to physical activity, fitness, health promotion, and community interventions. All intervention studies related to physical activity were summarized into tables. Six reviewers independently classified the intervention studies by the categories used in the Community Guide and screened the studies for inclusion in a systematic abstraction process to assess the strength of the evidence. Five trained researchers conducted the abstractions.

Results: The literature search identified 903 peer-reviewed articles and 142 Brazilian theses related to physical activity, of which 19 were selected for full abstraction. Only for school-based physical education classes was the strength of the evidence from Latin America sufficient to support a practice recommendation.

Conclusions: This systematic review highlights the need for rigorous evaluation of promising interventions to increase physical activity in Latin America. Implementation and maintenance of school physical education programs and policies should be strongly encouraged to promote the health of Latin American children.

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[EQ] The Politics of Healthy Policies

The Politics of Healthy Policies:
Redesigning health impact assessment to integrate health in public policy

Marleen Petra Maria Bekker
Institute of Health Policy and Management at Eramus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Erasmus University Rotterdam, September 2007

Available online PDF [239p.] at:

http://publishing.eur.nl/ir/repub/asset/10491/070912_Bekker%2C%20Marleen%20Petra%20Maria.pdf

“….Public health issues, such as obesity, lung disease from air pollution or mental health complaints from living in an unsafe neighbourhood, are complex, intractable policy problems. The causes are dispersed at the individual and the collective level among different societal sectors.

One strategy to integrate health in other sectors policies for developing effective and cooperative policy solutions is to provide evidence in a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) from proposed policies and project plans. In 15 years of practising HIA, policymakers and academics nevertheless express concern about its effectiveness. In The Politics of Healthy Policies a conceptual and empirical analysis is presented of the role of HIA in policy development.

From a governance perspective the author identifies different purposes of HIA for indicating societal problems and democratic deficits. These suggest that a technical design of HIA to assess causes and effects insufficiently addresses the political and normative issues of collaborative policymaking without institutional requirements or incentives. Four case studies are analysed of Dutch HIA practices at the national and local policy level, including a game simulation of health advocacy without HIA.

The outcomes suggest that a re- orientation on HIA is necessary in order to mobilise other sectors to prevent or mitigate public health problems. The author proposes an interaction-oriented, reflective design and a new definition of HIA. The book is especially relevant to HIA practitioners and health policymakers at different governmental levels. Many of the implications are highly relevant to other forms of impact assessment as well…..”

Table of Contents

1. The effectiveness of Health Impact Assessment

1.1 Health policy

1.2 Research questions

1.2.1 Health Impact Assessment as a coordination tool

1.2.2 Epistemological points of departure

1.3 Method

1.3.1 Interpretive method

1.3.2 Case selection on HIA research and interaction design

1.3.2 Maximum case variation

1.3.3 Informal coordination in game simulations

1.4 Outline of the book

2. Conceptualising the relationship between HIA and policy

3. Reframing policy and knowledge boundaries

4. Dordwijk: a City & Environment HIA of urban renewal

5. Healthy Housing: HIA of national housing policy

6. HIA of the national ‘Covenant on Obesity’ Action plan

7. Simulating informal policy coordination by health advocacy

8. Conclusions and discussion

8.1 The effectiveness of HIA

8.2 HIA as a boundary object to reframe public policies

8.3 Empirical findings

8.3.1 Intractable public health problems

8.3.2 Limited commitment to integrate health in public policy

8.3.3 Current HIA practices generate conflicting frames of health in policy

8.3.4 HIA design not compatible with strategic reframing by policymakers

8.3.5 Overall conclusion

8.4 Discussion

8.4.1 Methodological reflections on this research

8.4.2 Practical implications for HIA: creating policy dynamics

8.4.3 Delivering ‘serviceable truth’

8.4.4 Towards a new definition of Health Impact Assessment

8.4.5 Managing the politics of healthy policies

Website: http://repub.eur.nl/publications/index/696073637/

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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.