Health policy

About: Health policy is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 79623 publications have been published within this topic receiving 2017179 citations. The topic is also known as: Health policy.

The MOS 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36). I. Conceptual framework and item selection.

Abstract: A 36-item short-form (SF-36) was constructed to survey health status in the Medical Outcomes Study. The SF-36 was designed for use in clinical practice and research, health policy evaluations, and general population surveys. The SF-36 includes one multi-item scale that assesses eight health concepts: 1) limitations in physical activities because of health problems; 2) limitations in social activities because of physical or emotional problems; 3) limitations in usual role activities because of physical health problems; 4) bodily pain; 5) general mental health (psychological distress and well-being); 6) limitations in usual role activities because of emotional problems; 7) vitality (energy and fatigue); and 8) general health perceptions. The survey was constructed for self-administration by persons 14 years of age and older, and for administration by a trained interviewer in person or by telephone. The history of the development of the SF-36, the origin of specific items, and the logic underlying their selection are summarized. The content and features of the SF-36 are compared with the 20-item Medical Outcomes Study short-form.

Projections of Global Mortality and Burden of Disease from 2002 to 2030

Abstract: Background Global and regional projections of mortality and burden of disease by cause for the years 2000, 2010, and 2030 were published by Murray and Lopez in 1996 as part of the Global Burden of Disease project. These projections, which are based on 1990 data, continue to be widely quoted, although they are substantially outdated; in particular, they substantially underestimated the spread of HIV/AIDS. To address the widespread demand for information on likely future trends in global health, and thereby to support international health policy and priority setting, we have prepared new projections of mortality and burden of disease to 2030 starting from World Health Organization estimates of mortality and burden of disease for 2002. This paper describes the methods, assumptions, input data, and results. Methods and Findings Relatively simple models were used to project future health trends under three scenarios—baseline, optimistic, and pessimistic—based largely on projections of economic and social development, and using the historically observed relationships of these with cause-specific mortality rates. Data inputs have been updated to take account of the greater availability of death registration data and the latest available projections for HIV/AIDS, income, human capital, tobacco smoking, body mass index, and other inputs. In all three scenarios there is a dramatic shift in the distribution of deaths from younger to older ages and from communicable, maternal, perinatal, and nutritional causes to noncommunicable disease causes. The risk of death for children younger than 5 y is projected to fall by nearly 50% in the baseline scenario between 2002 and 2030. The proportion of deaths due to noncommunicable disease is projected to rise from 59% in 2002 to 69% in 2030. Global HIV/AIDS deaths are projected to rise from 2.8 million in 2002 to 6.5 million in 2030 under the baseline scenario, which assumes coverage with antiretroviral drugs reaches 80% by 2012. Under the optimistic scenario, which also assumes increased prevention activity, HIV/AIDS deaths are projected to drop to 3.7 million in 2030. Total tobacco-attributable deaths are projected to rise from 5.4 million in 2005 to 6.4 million in 2015 and 8.3 million in 2030 under our baseline scenario. Tobacco is projected to kill 50% more people in 2015 than HIV/AIDS, and to be responsible for 10% of all deaths globally. The three leading causes of burden of disease in 2030 are projected to include HIV/AIDS, unipolar depressive disorders, and ischaemic heart disease in the baseline and pessimistic scenarios. Road traffic accidents are the fourth leading cause in the baseline scenario, and the third leading cause ahead of ischaemic heart disease in the optimistic scenario. Under the baseline scenario, HIV/AIDS becomes the leading cause of burden of disease in middle- and low-income countries by 2015. Conclusions These projections represent a set of three visions of the future for population health, based on certain explicit assumptions. Despite the wide uncertainty ranges around future projections, they enable us to appreciate better the implications for health and health policy of currently observed trends, and the likely impact of fairly certain future trends, such as the ageing of the population, the continued spread of HIV/AIDS in many regions, and the continuation of the epidemiological transition in developing countries. The results depend strongly on the assumption that future mortality trends in poor countries will have a relationship to economic and social development similar to those that have occurred in the higher-income countries.

Health behavior and health education : theory, research, and practice

Abstract: Health behavior change is our greatest hope for reducing the burden of preventable disease and death around the world. Tobacco use, sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy diet, and alcohol use together account for almost one million deaths each year in the United States alone. Smoking prevalence in the United States has dropped by half since the first Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health was published in 1964, but tobacco use still causes over 400,000 premature deaths each year. The World Health Organization has warned that the worldwide spread of the tobacco epidemic could claim one billion lives by the end of this century. The rising prevalence of childhood obesity could place the United States at risk of raising the first generation of children to live sicker and die younger than their parents, and the spreading epidemic of obesity among children and adults threatens staggering global health and economic tolls. The four leading behavioral risks factors and a great many others (for example, nonadherence to prescribed medical screening and prevention and disease management practices, risky sexual practices, drug use, family and gun violence, worksite and motor vehicle injuries) take disproportionate tolls in low-income and disadvantaged racial and ethnic populations, as well as in low-resource communities across the world. Addressing these behavioral risks and disparities, and the behaviors related to global health threats, such as flu pandemics, water shortages, increasingly harmful sun exposure, and the need to protect the health of the planet itself, will be critical to world health in the twenty-first century. In the past two decades since the publication of the first edition of Health Education and Health Behavior: Theory, Research, and Practice in 1990, there has been extraordinary growth in our knowledge about interventions needed to change health behaviors at both individual and population levels. This progress can be measured in the proliferation of science-based recommendations issued by authoritative evidence review panels, including the U.S. Clinical Preventive Services Task Force, the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control Task Force on Community Preventive Services, and the international Cochrane Collaboration. Today, there are evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for most major behavioral health risks, including tobacco use, unhealthy diet, sedentary lifestyle, risky drinking, and diabetes management. And there are parallel research-based guidelines for the health care system changes and policies needed to assure their delivery and use. New community practice guidelines offer additional evidence-based recommendations for a wide array of population-level school-, worksite-, and community-based programs and public policies to improve vaccination rates and physical activity levels for children and adults, improve diabetes self-management, reduce harmful sun exposure, reduce secondhand smoke exposure, prevent youth tobacco use and help adult smokers quit, reduce workplace and motor vehicle injuries, and curb drunk driving and family and gun violence.