5 research outputs found
Putting global health high on the agenda of medical schools.
In this opinion paper, we reflect on global health and global health education as well as challenges that the coming generation are likely to face. As the field is rapidly changing, it is vital to critically reflect categories of "global south" and "global north" as geographical boundaries, and rather think in terms of inequalities that are present in all countries. Global perspectives on health are useful to analyze structural challenges faced in all health care systems and help understand the diversity of cultures and patients' concepts of disease. We first discuss burning questions and important challenges in the field and how those challenges are tackled. Rather than going into detail on topical issues, we reflect on approaches and attitudes that we think are important in global health education and present opportunities and challenges for young scholars who are interested in working in this field
Economic burden of road traffic injuries in Sub-Saharan Africa:a systematic review of existing literature
Objective: This systematic review aims to explore and
synthesise existing literature on the direct and indirect
costs from road traffic injuries (RTIs) in sub-Saharan Africa
(SSA), the quality of existing evidence, methods used to
estimate and report these costs, and the factors that drive
the costs.
Methodology: MEDLINE, SCOPUS, ProQuest Central,
Web of Science, Global Index Medicus, Embase, World
Bank Group e-Library, Econlit, Google Scholar and
WHO webpages were searched for relevant literature.
References of selected papers were also examined
for related articles. Screening was done following the
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and
Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Articles were included
in this review if they were published by March 2019,
written in English, conducted in SSA and reported original
findings on the cost of illness or economic burden of RTIs.
The results were systematically examined, and the quality
assessed by two reviewers using a modified Consolidated
Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS)
checklist.
Results: Eleven studies met the inclusion criteria. RTIs
can cost between INT486 and 12 845 per hospitalisation. Findings show
variability in costing methods and inadequacies in the
quality of existing evidence. Prolonged hospital stays,
surgical sundries and severity of injury were the most
common factors associated with cost.
Conclusion: While available data are limited, evidence
shows that the economic burden of RTIs in SSA is high.
Poor quality of existing evidence and heterogeneity in
costing methods limit the generalisability of costs reported
Who tells the story of burns in low-and-middle income countries? – A bibliometric study
Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) remain drastically underrepresented in health research, with African countries producing less than 1% of the global output. This work investigates authorship patterns of publications on burns in LMICs. Original research studies addressing burn injuries in LMICs and published between 1st January 2015 and 31st December 2020 were included in the review. Descriptive statistics were performed for country affiliations of authors, World Bank Country Income Groups, WHO group, study-focus and country studied. Of the 458 results, 426 studies met the inclusion criteria. Nearly a quarter of papers on burns in LMICs had both first and senior authors from high-income countries (HICs, n = 95, 24.4%), more than half of the papers had both first and senior authors from upper middle- income countries (upper MICs, n = 222, 57.2%), while less than 1% (n = 3) had first and senior authors exclusively from lower-income countries (LICs). Eleven percent (n = 41/388) of all papers were written without either first nor senior author being from the country studied, and 17 of them (41%) had both first and senior authors from the USA. Twenty-five (6%) of the papers had the first author and not the senior author from the country of focus, while six (2%) had the senior and not the first author from the country of interest. To overcome global health challenges such as burns, locally led research is imperative. The maximum benefit of HIC-LMIC collaborations is achieved when LMICs play an active role in leading the research. When LMICs direct the research being conducted in their country, the harm of inherently inequitable relationships is minimize