Wednesday, July 2, 2008

[EQ] Monitoring Social Disparities in health

Monitoring Social Disparities in Health

Health Surveillance and Disease Management - PAHO/WHO Seminar

When: Monday July 14, 2008
Where: PAHO/HQ Room: C
Time: 9:00AM a 10:30AM Washington DC Time

Virtual - Link to participate via Web:
https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=1110&password=M.14479FB4D94A1A03C0F3B5FE334AEF

AGENDA

·        9:00 – 9:10      Welcoming Remarks by Dr. Jarbas Barbosa da Silva Jr. - Health Surveillance and Disease Management Area - PAHO/WHO

·         9:10 – 10:00   Presenter
                                     Dr. Sam Harper, Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics & Occupational Health, McGill University, Quebec, Canada

. 10:00 – 10:30 Q & A

Web Conference: To join the meeting virtually via Elluminate, please click on the link below within 30 minutes of the specified time.
You may also invite others to participate by forwarding them the same link.

Related Papers:

An Overview of Methods for Monitoring Social Disparities in Cancer with an Example Using Trends in Lung Cancer Incidence by Area-Socioeconomic Position and Race-Ethnicity, 1992–2004

Sam Harper¹, John Lynch¹, Stephen C. Meersman², Nancy Breen², William W. Davis² and Marsha E. Reichman²

¹ Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
² Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda

American Journal of Epidemiology 2008 167(8):889-899; doi:10.1093/aje/kwn016
Website: http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/167/8/889

“……The authors provide an overview of methods for summarizing socialdisparities in health using the example of lung cancer. Theyapply four measures of relative disparity and three measuresof absolute disparity to trends in US lung cancer incidenceby area-socioeconomic position and race-ethnicity from 1992to 2004. ..”

Trends in the Black-White Life Expectancy Gap in the United States, 1983-2003

Sam Harper, John Lynch, Scott Burris, George Davey Smith

JAMA, March 21, 2007—Vol 297, No. 11 American Medical Association
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/297/11/1224.pdf

“….Recent life expectancy trends indicate positive movement toward one of the major US public health goals of eliminating black-white mortality inequalities, but substantial inequalities and challenges remain. Reducing social and individual risk factors for major causes of death and improving access and quality of care for blacks, particularly for cardio vascular diseases, should be a pressing priority for public health and health care…’

Explaining the social gradient in coronary heart disease: comparing relative and absolute risk approaches

John Lynch, George Davey Smith, Sam Harper, Kathleen Bainbridge

J Epidemiol Community Health 2006;60:436–441. doi: 10.1136/jech.2005.041350

“….Understanding the causes of social inequalitiesin coronary heart disease CHD may depend on whether one is interested in explainingabsolute or relative inequalities in CHD. Conventional riskfactors account for the vast majority of CHD cases and for asubstantial portion of absolute social inequalities in CHD—72%of the excess risk. An absolute risk approach to understandsocial inequalities in CHD focuses attention on those risk factorsthat cause most cases of disease attributable to social inequality.If the concern is to reduce the overall population health burdenof CHD and the disproportionate population health burden associatedwith the social inequalities in CHD, then reducing conventionalrisk factors will do the job….”

Methods for Measuring Cancer Disparities:

Using Data Relevant to Healthy People 2010 Cancer-Related Objectives

Sam Harper, John Lynch, Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health

University of Michigan, 2006

Surveillance Research Program (SRP) and the Applied Research Program (ARP) of the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences of the National Cancer Institute, NIH.

Available online as PDF file [80p.] at: http://seer.cancer.gov/publications/disparities/measuring_disparities.pdf

“……This report raises some conceptual issues and reviews different methodological approaches germane to measuring progress toward the goal of eliminating cancer-related health disparities. Despite the increased attention to social disparities in health, no clear framework exists to define and measure health disparities….”

Measuring Health Disparities Computer-based Course MHDID0806

John W. Lynch, Sam Harper
Michigan Public Health Training Center (MPHTC) - University of Michigan, School of Public Health

Website:
https://practice.sph.umich.edu/mphtc/site.php?module=courses_one_online_course&id=247

“….This interactive course focuses on some basic issues for public health practice -- how to understand, define and measure health disparity. This course examines the language of health disparity to come to some common understanding of what that term means, explains key measures of health disparity and shows how to calculate them. This computer-based course provides a durable tool that is useful to daily activities in the practice of public health….”

       *      *      *     *
         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/ KMS 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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         EQUITY List - Archives - Join/remove: http://listserv.paho.org/Archives/equidad.html

    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.

[EQ] Investing in and implementing population health strategies

How can European health systems support investment in and the implementation of population health strategies?

David McDaid, LSE Health and Social Care, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom, and European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies

Michael Drummond, Centre for Health Economics, University of York, United Kingdom

Marc Suhrcke, Venice Office, WHO Regional Office for Europe

POLICY BRIEF - HEALTH SYSTEMS AND POLICY ANALYSIS

World Health Organization, on behalf of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies 2008

Available online PDF [36p.] at: http://www.euro.who.int/document/hsm/1_hsc08_ePB_2.pdf

“…..Poor health in Europe has substantial health and socioeconomic costs. Much of this burden might be avoided by implementing effective population health strategies, both within and outside the health system. A broad approach to promoting population health requires a combination of upstream and downstream measures. Upstream measures may include measures that, among other goals, can help promote health, such as fiscal redistribution, improving the quality of housing and using incentives to encourage students to stay in school. Downstream measures include health promotion and primary disease prevention action, often targeting individual behaviour and lifestyle.

To support investment in population health strategies, health systems must be able to identify not only what works and at what cost but also in what context. Mechanisms to allow such information to be fed into the policy deliberation process and also to facilitate the implementation of agreed population health strategies are then required….”

Contents

Key messages

Executive summary

Policy brief

The case for investing in health promotion and disease prevention strategies in Europe

Policy options: generating and using existing evidence on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of population health strategies

Policy options moving forward: strengthening the evidence base and examining institutional arrangements

Identifying alternative ways of bringing about change

Summary

References

    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.

[EQ] Foreign policy and global public health: working together towards common goals

Foreign policy and global public health: working together towards common goals

Margaret Chan,a Jonas Gahr Støre b & Bernard Kouchner c

a Director, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.

b Minister of Foreign Affairs, Oslo, Norway.

c Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Paris, France

Bulletin of the World Health Organization | July 2008, 86 (7)

Available online at: http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/86/7/08-056002.pdf

“…..Pandemics, emerging diseases and bioterrorism are readily understood as direct threats to national and global security. But health issues are also important in other core functions of foreign policy, such as pursuing economic growth, fostering development, and supporting human rights and human dignity. Health is today a growing concern in foreign policy….”

A key event in this new era of global health diplomacy was the recent World Health Assembly resolution on public health and intellectual property (WHA 61.21) demonstrating what can be achieved when public health experts and diplomats work together.

The successful outcome of the Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property was due to the flexibility Member States demonstrated in negotiating the global strategy and plan of action. The resolution means a more proactive approach can be taken in the quest for innovation of, and equitable access to, life-saving and health-promoting interventions…..”

WHO Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Propertyurib

In May 2008, the Sixty-first World Health Assembly adopted Resolution WHA 61.21:
Global strategy and plan of action on public health, innovation and intellectual property
Global strategy and plan of action on public health, innovation and intellectual property [pdf, 154 kb]

    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.