Thursday, March 10, 2011

[EQ] The Social Determinants of Tuberculosis: From Evidence to Action

The Social Determinants of Tuberculosis:

From Evidence to Action

James R. Hargreaves, Delia Boccia, Mark Petticrew, and John D. H. Porter are with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom. Carlton A. Evans is with the Faculty of Science and Philosophy, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru. Michelle Adato is with the International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC.

April 2011, Vol 101, No. 4 | American Journal of Public Health 654-662

Website: http://bit.ly/fKMTXo

“……Growing consensus indicates that progress in tuberculosis control in the low- and middle-income world will require not only investment in strengthening tuberculosis control programs, diagnostics, and treatment but also action on the social determinants of tuberculosis. However, practical ideas for action are scarcer than is notional support for this idea.

We developed a framework based on the recent World Health Organization Commission on Social Determinants of Health and on current understanding of the social determinants of tuberculosis. Interventions from outside the health sector—specifically, in social protection and urban planning—have the potential to strengthen tuberculosis control………….”

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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/ KMC Area]

Washington DC USA

“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] Inequalities in Health System Performance - Social Determinants in Europe Tools for Assessment - Information Sharing

Putting our own house in order: some resources for taking health system action on socially determined health inequalities

A joint action by the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the European Commission – March 2011

Inequalities in Health System Performance -
Social Determinants in Europe Tools for Assessment - Information Sharing

Website: http://bit.ly/gjJukB

“…..Socially determined health inequalities (SDHI) in the European region have been increasing and are likely to continue to do so without determined action to counter them. Left unchallenged, their negative consequences on vulnerable populations will also impose costs on society as a whole. These health inequalities are caused by and relate to social determinants such as poverty, unemployment, unsafe working conditions and precarious work, gender norms and standards and level of education as well as activity in the health system itself. While the health system alone cannot reduce health inequalities, it nevertheless has a vital role in achieving that goal, and as part of any overall approach to tackling SDHI.

In 2007 the WHO Regional Office for Europe together with the European Commission commenced a joint action on inequalities in health-system performance and their social determinants in Europe with the two objectives of:

· mapping health inequalities in the European Union and selected neighbouring countries based on a range of Eurostat indicator datasets (demographic, socioeconomic, health resources, mortality and hospitalization admission dimensions), available on a regional level; and

· developing resources to assist policy-makers in taking action, based on current and past examples of health system action across Europe, and building on the evidence from the global Commission on Social Determinants of Health and its knowledge networks.

This has resulted in the development of the following products which are now available through the WHO Regional Office for Europe website:

1. An interactive system of atlases of health inequalities in Europe with the following tools being developed:
URL: http://bit.ly/gf78AO

a) the regional comparison, which allows quick view of several key indicators between a limited number of regions;
    http://bit.ly/e1EToE
b) the correlation map atlas allows a quick visualization of two variables in maps and their association in a graph; and,
    http://bit.ly/gBqdVN
c) the atlases of social inequalities which allows visualization of the difference between a target value
   (most advantaged situation) and the value in a region or group of regions while taking into account the effect of different socioeconomic stratifiers.
   http://bit.ly/e5P2XS

2. A web-based resource – URL: http://bit.ly/g5oQsw of examples of health system action that can be taken to tackle SDHI as part of an overall approach to the health system putting its own house in order. The resource is both a source of primary health intelligence and an applied source of information. It documents examples of health systems actions to counter SDHI and seeks to assist in the application of the information to different contexts.

3. A companion publication – URL: http://bit.ly/htchvN Putting our own house in order: examples of health-system action on socially determined health inequalities, which aims to show how to systematically use and generate evidence-informed options for action from the knowledge contained in a selection of the examples available on the web-based resource.

4. Six policy issues briefings that are available through different links on the WHO EURO website including:

How health systems can address inequities in priority public health conditions: the example of tuberculosis
http://bit.ly/eszAew

How health systems can address health inequities linked to migration and ethnicity
http://bit.ly/hAJZgj

Poverty, social exclusion and health systems in the WHO European Region
http://bit.ly/hRJ5Ut

How health systems can accelerate progress towards Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 on child and maternal health by promoting gender equity
http://bit.ly/hxToDa

How health systems can address health inequities through improved use of Structural Funds
http://bit.ly/hz5LHY

Rural poverty and health systems in the WHO European Region
http://bit.ly/gEMBAE

The joint action has received funding from the European Commission under the Public Health Programme.
http://data.euro.who.int/equity

* * *
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/ KMC Area]
Washington DC USA

“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] Priorities for research on equity and health

Priorities for research on equity and health:
Implications for global and national priority setting and the role of WHO to take the health equity research agenda forward

Final Report – November 2010
World Health Organization (WHO) Task Force on Research Priorities for Equity in Health

Available online PDF [43p.] at: http://bit.ly/hX0t68

“……….This recent paper, commissioned by the Equity Analysis and Research Unit of WHO, aims to stimulate further thinking, debate and refinement of strategic approaches focusing WHO support and collaborations to advance global research on equity and health. It sets forth broad parameters for a global research agenda on equity and health, taking stock of contemporary efforts, stakeholder discussions, relevance to Member States and expected innovations. …”

Recommend an agenda for research in the following four distinct but interrelated areas:

(1) global factors and processes that affect health equity;

(2) structures and processes that differentially affect people's chances to be healthy within a given society;

(3) health system factors that affect health equity; and

(4) policy interventions to reduce health inequity, that is how to influence (1)-(3) effectively, for example by identifying policy and programme interventions with the potential to reduce inequities in the determinants of health and health services and opportunities to transfer the findings of research to potential users with maximum effectiveness.

“….In each of these areas, much is already known, but much remains to be understood. The discussion that follows provides a brief overview of the research agenda and identifies several examples of priority research questions, in general terms. The lists of research questions are far from exhaustive, although we are confident that we have identified many of the most important ones.

The reader should keep in mind that the document’s focus is on priority research needs, which do not necessarily correspond to the most urgent policy responses based on what we already know. It is expected that in the shaping and implementation of research policies, the specific context (whether sub-national, national, regional or global) will place greater urgency on some themes….”

Authors:

Piroska Östlin (Task Force coordinator and core author), Regional Director’s Office, World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe

Ted Schrecker (core author), Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine and Institute of Population Health, University of Ottawa, Canada

Ritu Sadana (core author), Director's Office, Department of Health Systems Financing, Health Systems and Services Cluster, World Health Organization

Josiane Bonnefoy, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile

Lucy Gilson, University of Cape Town, South Africa and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom

Clyde Hertzman, Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP), University of British Columbia, Canada

Michael P. Kelly, Centre for Public Health Excellence, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, United Kingdom

Tord Kjellstrom, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

Ronald Labonté, Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine and Institute of Population Health, University of Ottawa, Canada

Olle Lundberg, Centre for Health Equity Studies, Stockholm, Sweden

Carles Muntaner, Social Equity and Health Section, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing and Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto

Jennie Popay, Division of Health Research, Lancaster University, United Kingdom

Gita Sen, Indian Institute of Management, Centre for Public Policy, Bangalore, India

Ziba Vaghri, Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP), University of British Columbia, Canada….”

[EQ] Tackling Inequalities in Brazil, China, India and South Africa The Role of Labour Market and Social Policies

Tackling Inequalities in Brazil, China, India and South Africa
The Role of Labour Market and Social Policies

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 2010

Available online PDF [311p] at: http://bit.ly/dOBv7e

“………Greater integration into the world economy and important policy reforms have resulted in Brazil, China, India and South Africa becoming major actors in the globalisation process, with impressive results in terms of economic growth, social development and poverty reduction. But the benefits of stronger growth have not always been shared equally and income inequality has remained at very high levels.

Existing evidence suggests that the evolution of the distribution of income in these four countries is the result of many forces. These include demographic change, migration, unequal access to education, informal employment, existing regulations and their enforcement, social norms and cultural legacy. These forces are often interlinked and reinforce one another. However, as employment is the primary source of income for most households, understanding the impact of labour market outcomes is crucial.

This book focuses on the role of growth and employment/unemployment developments in explaining recent income inequality trends in Brazil, China, India and South Africa, and discusses the roles played by labour market and social policies in both shaping and addressing these inequalities.
It includes the papers presented at
the joint OECD and European Union High-Level Conference on Inequalities in Emerging Economies held in Paris in May 2010….”

Content:

Chapter 1. Growth, employment and inequality in Brazil, China, India and South Africa: An overview

Chapter 2. The decade of falling income inequality and formal employment generation in Brazil

Chapter 3. Fast growth, but widening income distribution in China
Chapter 4. Decreasing poverty and increasing inequality in India

Chapter 5. Better employment to reduce inequality further in South Africa

Chapter 6. What role for policies in tackling inequality?

Notes

References