94 research outputs found
Mothers and Children: Designing research toward integrated care for both
In this paper we examine pragmatic corollaries to the design and implementation of Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 4 and 5. The first corollary we analyze is how the timeframe imposed on the MDGs affects choices about how to implement health care interventions to meet those goals, which we look at specifically in terms of the trade-off between strengthening a health care system or increasing mass campaigns. The second corollary is that, in the allocation of resources, those choices must often be made between providing health care interventions for certain members of the population as opposed to others. We analyze aspects of these unintentional effects of the MDGs, and then offer a model for designing research on the provision of maternal and child health that does aim to take them into account
Priority setting in early childhood development: an analytical framework for economic evaluation of interventions
BACKGROUND: Early childhood development (ECD) sets the foundation for healthy and successful lives with important ramifications for education, labour market outcomes and other domains of well-being. Even though a large number of interventions that promote ECD have been implemented and evaluated globally, there is currently no standardised framework that allows a comparison of the relative cost-effectiveness of these interventions. METHODS: We first reviewed the existing literature to document the main approaches that have been used to assess the relative effectiveness of interventions that promote ECD, including early parenting and at-home psychosocial stimulation interventions. We then present an economic evaluation framework that builds on these reviewed approaches and focuses on the immediate impact of interventions on motor, cognitive, language and socioemotional skills. Last, we apply our framework to compute the relative cost-effectiveness of interventions for which recent effectiveness and costing data were published. For this last part, we relied on a recently published review to obtain effect sizes documented in a consistent manner across interventions. FINDINGS: Our framework enables direct value-for-money comparison of interventions across settings. Cost-effectiveness estimates, expressed in $ per units of improvement in ECD outcomes, vary greatly across interventions. Given that estimated costs vary by orders of magnitude across interventions while impacts are relatively similar, cost-effectiveness rankings are dominated by implementation costs and the interventions with higher value for money are generally those with a lower implementation cost (eg, psychosocial interventions involving limited staff). CONCLUSIONS: With increasing attention and investment into ECD programmes, consistent assessments of the relative cost-effectiveness of available interventions are urgently needed. This paper presents a unified analytical framework to address this need and highlights the rather remarkable range in both costs and cost-effectiveness across currently available intervention strategies
Estimating the distribution of morbidity and mortality of childhood diarrhea, measles, and pneumonia by wealth group in low- and middle-income countries
__Background:__ Equitable access to vaccines has been suggested as a priority for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, it is unclear whether providing equitable access is enough to ensure health equity. Furthermore, disaggregated data on health outcomes and benefits gained across population subgroups are often unavailable. This paper develops a model to estimate the distribution of childhood disease cases and deaths across socioeconomic groups, and the potential benefits of three vaccine programs in LMICs.
__Methods:__ For each country and for three diseases (diarrhea, measles, pneumonia), we estimated the distributions of cases and deaths that would occur across wealth quintiles in the absence of any immunization or treatment programs, using both the prevalence and relative risk of a set of risk and prognostic factors. Building on these baseline estimates, we examined what might be the impact of three vaccines (first dose of measles, pneumococcal conjugate, and rotavirus vaccines), under five scenarios based on different sets of quintile-specific immunization coverage and disease treatment utilization rates.
__Results:__ Due to higher prevalence of risk factors among the poor, disproportionately more disease cases and deaths would occur among the two lowest wealth quintiles for all three diseases when vaccines or treatment are unavailable. Country-specific context, including how the baseline risks, immunization coverage, and treatment utilization are currently distributed across quintiles, affects how different policies translate into changes in cases and deaths distribution.
__Conclusions:__ Our study highlights several factors that would substantially contribute to the unequal distribution of childhood diseases, and finds that merely ensuring equal access to vaccines will not reduce the health outcomes gap across wealth quintiles. Such information can inform policies and planning of programs that aim to improve equitable delivery of healthcare services
HTA â algorithm or process? Comment on âExpanded HTA: enhancing fairness and legitimacyâ
Daniels, Porteny and Urrutia et al make a good case for the idea that that public decisions ought to be made not
only âin the light of â evidence but also âon the basis of â budget impact, financial protection and equity. Health
technology assessment (HTA) should, they say, be accordingly expanded to consider matters additional to safety
and cost-effectiveness. They also complain that most HTA reports fail to develop ethical arguments and generally
do not even mention ethical issues. This comment argues that some of these defects are more apparent than real and
are not inherent in HTA â as distinct from being common characteristics found in poorly conducted HTAs. More
generally, HTA does not need âextensionâ since (1) ethical issues are already embedded in HTA processes, not least in
their scoping phases, and (2) HTA processes are already sufficiently flexible to accommodate evidence about a wide
range of factors, and will not need fundamental change in order to accommodate the new forms of decision-relevant
evidence about distributional impact and financial protection that are now starting to emerge. HTA and related
techniques are there to support decision-makers who have authority to make decisions. Analysts like us are there to
support and advise them (and not to assume the responsibilities for which they, and not we, are accountable). The
required quality in HTA then becomes its effectiveness as a means of addressing the issues of concern to decisionmakers. What is also required is adherence by competent analysts to a standard template of good analytical practice.
The competencies include not merely those of the usual disciplines (particularly biostatistics, cognitive psychology,
health economics, epidemiology, and ethics) but also the imaginative and interpersonal skills for exploring the ârealâ
question behind the decision-makerâs brief (actual or postulated) and eliciting the social values that necessarily
pervade the entire analysis. The product of such exploration defines the authoritative scope of an HTA
Estimation of distribution of childhood diarrhoea, measles, and pneumonia morbidity and mortality by socio-economic group in low-income and middle-income countries
Background Vaccines are one of the most successful interventions in improving population health in low-income and
middle-income countries (LMICs). In addition to the direct improvements in health outcomes, we are interested
in their distributional effectsâthat is, whether vaccines promote or reduce health equity across socioeconomic
groups. Empirical data on incidence and mortality of vaccine-preventable diseases across socioeconomic groups
is not available. Therefore, we developed a method to estimate the distribution of childhood diseases and deaths
across income groups and the benefits of three vaccinesâfor diarrhoea, measles, and pneumoniaâin 41 LMICs.
Methods For every country and disease (diarrhoea, measles, pneumonia), we estimated the distribution of cases and
deaths that would occur in each income quintile had there been no immunisation or treatment programme, using
both the prevalence and relative risk of a set of risk and prognostic factors. Building on these baseline estimates, we
assessed the effect of three vaccines (first dose of measles vaccine, pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, and rotavirus
vaccine) under five scenarios based on sets of quintile-specific immunisation coverage and uptake of disease
treatment.
Findings Because the prevalence of risk factors is higher in the poorest two quintiles than in the rest of the population,
more disease cases and deaths would occur in the poorest two quintiles for all three diseases when vaccines or treatment
are unavailable. However, we noted that current immunisation coverage and treatment utilisation rates have resulted in
greater inequity in the distribution of cases and deaths. Even if in absolute terms the poorest quintiles benefit more
from vaccines, the wealthier two quintiles sees a higher percentage decrease in cases and deaths. Thus, in terms of
overall distribution of remaining cases and deaths with vaccine coverage, the poorest quintiles would see a higher
comparative burden of disease than they would without vaccine coverage. Country-specific context, including how the
baseline risks, immunisation coverage, and treatment utilisation are currently distributed across quintiles, affects how
different policies translate to improvements in the distribution of cases and deaths.
Interpretation Our analysis highlights several factors, including risk and prognostic factors, and vaccine and treatment
coverage that would substantially contribute to the unequal distribution of childhood diseases, and we found that
merely ensuring equal access to vaccines will not reduce the health outcomes gap between income quintiles. Such
information can inform policies and planning of programmes that aim to improve equitable delivery of healthcare
services
Accounting for Equity Considerations in Cost-Effectiveness Analysis : A Systematic Review of Rotavirus Vaccine in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Additional file 3: Appendix C. Full data table of results
A Toxicogenomics Approach to Identify New Plausible Epigenetic Mechanisms of Ochratoxin A Carcinogenicity in Rat
Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a mycotoxin occurring naturally in a wide range of food commodities. In animals, it has been shown to cause a variety of adverse effects, nephrocarcinogenicity being the most prominent. Because of its high toxic potency and the continuous exposure of the human population, OTA has raised public health concerns. There is significant debate on how to use the rat carcinogenicity data to assess the potential risk to humans. In this context, the question of the mechanism of action of OTA appears of key importance and was studied through the application of a toxicogenomics approach. Male Fischer rats were fed OTA for up to 2 years. Renal tumors were discovered during the last 6 months of the study. The total tumor incidence reached 25% at the end of the study. Gene expression profile was analyzed in groups of animals taken in intervals from 7 days to 12 months. Tissue-specific responses were observed in kidney versus liver. For selected genes, microarray data were confirmed at both mRNA and protein levels. In kidney, several genes known as markers of kidney injury and cell regeneration were significantly modulated by OTA. The expression of genes known to be involved in DNA synthesis and repair, or genes induced as a result of DNA damage, was only marginally modulated. Very little or no effect was found amongst genes associated with apoptosis. Alterations of gene expression indicating effects on calcium homeostasis and a disruption of pathways regulated by the transcription factors hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 alpha (HNF4α) and nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) were observed in the kidney but not in the liver. Previous data have suggested that a reduction in HNF4α may be associated with nephrocarcinogenicity. Many Nrf2-regulated genes are involved in chemical detoxication and antioxidant defense. The depletion of these genes is likely to impair the defense potential of the cells, resulting in chronic elevation of oxidative stress in the kidney. The inhibition of defense mechanism appears as a highly plausible new mechanism, which could contribute to OTA carcinogenicit
Equity impact of minimum unit pricing of alcohol on household health and finances among rich and poor drinkers in South Africa
INTRODUCTION: South Africa experiences significant levels of alcohol-related harm. Recent research suggests minimum unit pricing (MUP) for alcohol would be an effective policy, but high levels of income inequality raise concerns about equity impacts. This paper quantifies the equity impact of MUP on household health and finances in rich and poor drinkers in South Africa. METHODS: We draw from extended cost-effectiveness analysis (ECEA) methods and an epidemiological policy appraisal model of MUP for South Africa to simulate the equity impact of a ZAR 10 MUP over a 20-year time horizon. We estimate the impact across wealth quintiles on: (i) alcohol consumption and expenditures; (ii) mortality; (iii) government healthcare cost savings; (iv) reductions in cases of catastrophic health expenditures (CHE) and household savings linked to reduced health-related workplace absence. RESULTS: We estimate MUP would reduce consumption more among the poorest than the richest drinkers. Expenditure would increase by ZAR 353â000âmillion (1 US$=13.2âZAR), the poorest contributing 13% and the richest 28% of the increase, although this remains regressive compared with mean income. Of the 22â600 deaths averted, 56% accrue to the bottom two quintiles; government healthcare cost savings would be substantial (ZAR 3.9âbillion). Cases of CHE averted would be 564 700, 46% among the poorest two quintiles. Indirect cost savings amount to ZAR 51.1âbillion. CONCLUSIONS: A MUP policy in South Africa has the potential to reduce harm and health inequality. Fiscal policies for population health require structured policy appraisal, accounting for the totality of effects using mathematical models in association with ECEA methodology
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