WHO-definition of health must be enforced by national law: a debate

BACKGROUND: On its establishment, the World Health Organization (WHO) defined health as a fundamental human right deserving legal protection. Subsequently, the Ottawa Charter reaffirmed health as a fundamental right, and emphasized health promotion as the most appropriate response to global health issues. Here we suggest that the WHO definition of health as more than simply the absence of illness is not normative, and therefore requires standardization. To date such standardization unfortunately is lacking. DISCUSSION: National legislatures must actively ensure fair access to health care, both nationally and internationally, and also must reduce social inequality. To achieve this requires practical action, not statements of intentions, commitments or targets. Protecting fundamental rights to health care can be a fruitful focus for legislatures. Legislative action can build an objective legal framework for health care law, and guide its interpretation and application. Additionally, it is important to ensure the law is appropriate, useful and sustainable. SUMMARY: Action is needed to protect the fundamental right to health care. Legislators should appropriately incorporate the WHO recommendations regarding this right into national law. Additionally, professional experts should help interpret and codify concepts of health and join the interdisciplinary discussion of a variable health standard

Category Development.

<p>Category Development.</p

Insecurities of Women Regarding Breast Cancer Research: A Qualitative Study

<div><p>Objectives</p><p>Only 1.2%–11% of all potential study participants participate in cancer studies. Low participation rates can result in bias or in a failure to obtain data saturation. Subject-scientific psychology assumes that reasons for acting are based on individual premises. The objective of this study was to render reproducible individual reasons of female breast cancer patients to participate or not participate in breast cancer studies using a qualitative approach.</p><p>Methods</p><p>Problem-based interviews were conducted with female breast cancer patients. The selection of interview partners continued until theoretical data saturation was achieved.</p><p>Results</p><p>As main arguments against participation emotional overload and too many medication side-effects were stated. Improvement of health-related values, long-term protection and comprehensive follow-up exams were stated as arguments for participation. Trust in the attending physician was mentioned as influencing both participation and non-participation.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>A significant influential factor determining willingness to participate in studies was one's contentment with patient-physician communication. In order to guarantee an adequate patient decision-making process, keeping existing standards for patient briefings is absolutely mandatory.</p></div

Reasons for and against participation in studies of medicinal therapies for women with breast cancer: a debate

Abstract Background A special challenge for research studies of breast cancer among females is low patient participation rates. We compiled this systematic review to identify reasons why women with, or at high risk of, breast cancer do or do not participate in medicinal studies of breast cancer. Method A systematic literature search in the databases Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Medline, Pascal Biomed, ACP Journal Club and CINAHL, as well as searches through reference lists of relevant texts, was performed. Results Of 39 relevant full texts, ultimately, nine studies (1 qualitative, 8 quantitative) were included after applying the inclusion criteria. Despite a lack of data material, it was possible to identify various factors influencing women's willingness to participate in medicinal studies and group them into three categories: person-related, study-related, and physician-related. Conclusion Reasons for or against participation in studies of medicinal therapies by women with, or at high risk of, breast cancer are multi-dimensional, and should be considered when planning such studies to garner higher participation rates. For a more comprehensive picture of factors that affect participation, further studies in this field are recommended.</p