Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Health Priorities”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 325 records · Page 18Linked to original sources
PubMed2005

From the trenches: views from decision-makers on health services priority setting.

Due to resource scarcity, health organizations worldwide must decide what services to fund and, conversely, what services not to fund. One approach to priority setting, which has been widely used in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, is programme budgeting and marginal analysis (PBMA). To date, such activity has primarily been based at a micro level, within programmes of care. In order to institute and refine the PBMA framework at a macro level across major service areas within a single health authority, researchers and decision-makers in Alberta embarked on a participatory action research project together. This paper identifies key issues of importance to decision-makers in a real-world priority-setting context. Themes discussed include making comparisons across disparate patient groups, dealing with political factors, using relevant forms of evidence, recognizing innovations and involving the public. The in-depth insight gained through this qualitative analysis will enable future refinement of PBMA at a macro level in the health authority under study, and should also serve to inform priority-setting activity in regionalized contexts elsewhere. In identifying aspects of priority setting that are important to decision-makers, researchers can also be better informed with respect to real-world processes.

Alberta↗
PubMed1996

Women's health: consumer views for planning local health promotion and health care priorities.

A random door knock survey was conducted in five metropolitan postcode areas with a high proportion of low-income households to establish: 1. the health problems experienced by women, 2. the problems with which women would have liked more help, and 3. women's perceptions of how their health care experiences might have been improved. In all, 214 women were interviewed. Across all age groups the most common problems were tiredness, premenstrual syndrome, stress, being overweight and disturbed sleep. Premenstrual syndrome, tiredness and arthritis were the most commonly experienced problems among younger, middle-aged and older women respectively. In general, women were satisfied with the help available to them for their health problems, but one in five would have liked more help to cope with stress, and one in six said they would like help to address the issue of quality of medical care. In relation to health care services, suggestions for improvement included the provision of better health information from doctors and other health care professionals, and more opportunities for counselling and self-help. The project findings will be used to influence the development of local policies and services, and will form the focus for local women's health promotion programs.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

[Health services priorities in Quebec].

The reform of health services in Quebec, of which the most important stage was the creation of the Department of Social Affairs and the Quebec Health Insurance Board, has solved certain problems such as the inaccessibility to care because of the cost, the paucity of medical personnel and the excessive increase in the cost of the services offered to hospital patients. A critical analysis of both the reform and its practical consequences points to certain conclusions which, far from rejecting the principle of the reform, indicate none the less various possibilities for reorienting its priorities. Observing the rate of recourse to health services as well as the attitudes and conduct of health professionals have helped us to identify the causes of certain tendencies inspired by the incentives inherent in the reform. The organization of health services in Quebec must be oriented toward new priorities: the prevention and treatment both of environmental diseases and diseases associated with ageing plus the definition of a global approach to public health.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Medicine and its alternatives. Health care priorities in the Caribbean.

In the Caribbean as in many other areas costly biomedical resources and personnel are limited, and more and more people are turning to alternative medicine and folk practitioners for health care. To meet the goal of providing health care for all, research on nonbiomedical therapies is needed, along with legal recognition of folk practitioners to establish standards of practice.

Budgets↗
PubMed2004

Health technology assessment and its influence on health-care priority setting.

In this article, we review the development of health technology assessment (HTA) in England and Wales, France, The Netherlands, and Sweden, and we summarize the reaction to these developments from a variety of different disciplinary and stakeholder perspectives (political science, sociology, economics, ethics, public health, general practice, clinical medicine, patients, and the pharmaceutical industry). We conclude that translating HTA into policy is a highly complex business and that, despite the growth of HTA over the past two decades, its influence on policy making, and its perceived relevance for people from a broad range of different perspectives, remains marginal.

Europe↗
PubMed2005

An assessment of the telehealth needs and health-care priorities of Tanna Island: a remote, under-served and vulnerable population.

We surveyed eight Canadian physicians who had each provided medical care for six months on the remote and under-served island of Tanna in Vanuatu. The most frequently encountered medical problems on Tanna were infectious diseases (tuberculosis, hepatitis, abscesses, malaria, pneumonia, typhoid fever, meningitis and skin infections). When physicians were asked about the top three health-care priorities, they ranked tuberculosis control, clean water and improved health-care delivery/communication between hospital and outposts as most important. The key issues were: (1) basic public health needs and infrastructure development are higher in priority than telehealth; (2) telehealth consultants must have knowledge pertinent to local conditions and resources available to the population; (3) electronic equipment suited to tropical environments is needed; (4) projects must be developed locally rather than internationally. Understanding how telehealth can provide support to health professionals under challenging conditions may assist with the health priorities in developing countries and potentially provide access to resources both locally and internationally.

Developing Countries↗
PubMed1994

Health promotion priorities for general practice: constructing and using "indicative prevalences".

OBJECTIVE: To construct indicative prevalences for a range of diseases and risk markers and use them in planning health promotion interventions in primary health care. DESIGN: Indicative prevalences comprised point prevalence, incidence, and mortality measures. Use of data from Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, Northern Regional Health Authority, and Newcastle health and lifestyle survey 1991, and research papers to determine prevalence adjusted for age and sex in a hypothetical practice with a list of 10,000 patients. SETTING: Newcastle upon Tyne, England. RESULTS: Indicative prevalences were highest for common risk markers such as failure to achieve exercise targets (6871), moderate to extreme obesity (2785), and smoking (2689); moderate for overt disease such as angina (175) and stroke (20/year); and low for events such as suicide (1/year) and deaths from malignant melanoma (2/10 years). CONCLUSIONS: Given limited time and resources, brief interventions to reduce smoking and the systematic case finding and management of patients with hypertension, angina, and previous myocardial infarction are likely to be the highest priorities for health promotion in primary care.

Chronic Disease↗
PubMed2006

Priority setting in health care using multi-attribute utility theory and programme budgeting and marginal analysis (PBMA).

Programme budgeting and marginal analysis (PBMA) is becoming an increasingly popular tool in setting health service priorities. This paper presents a novel multi-attribute utility (MAU) approach to setting health service priorities using PBMA. This approach includes identifying the attributes of the MAU function; describing and scaling attributes; quantifying trade-offs between attributes; and combining single conditional utility functions into the MAU function. We illustrate the MAU approach using a PBMA case study in mental health services from the Community Health Sector in metropolitan South Australia.

Australia↗
PubMed1992

The problem of discrimination in health care priority setting.

Increasingly stringent fiscal restrictions on the scope of medical services available to patients have resulted in calls for explicit health care priority setting. Several commentators have called for the application of decision-analytic principles to such efforts, which would assign services priority based on the extent to which they produce preferred health outcomes. The Oregon Medicaid exercise is an example of such a process. An important challenge to these utilitarian efforts is the need to avoid discrimination against people with medical disabilities. Both of the key elements entailed by decision-analytic approaches to priority setting--estimation of outcomes and assignment of values to those outcomes--are vulnerable to charges of discrimination, primarily because both the medical outcomes expected in disabled individuals and the values they place on those outcomes may differ from the general public. Priority-setting efforts must proceed carefully to avoid the appearance (and reality) of discrimination.

Civil Rights↗
PubMed1999

The challenge of measuring community values in ways appropriate for setting health care priorities.

The move from a notion that community values ought to play a role in health care decision making to the creation of health care policies that in some way reflect such values is a challenging one. No single method will adequately measure community values in a way appropriate for setting health care priorities. Consequently, multiple methods to measure community values should be employed, thereby allowing the strengths and weaknesses of the various methods to complement each other. A preliminary research agenda to bring together empirical research on community values with more traditional research on health care ethics is outlined, with the goal of identifying and measuring acceptable community values that are relatively consistent across measurement methods and, ultimately, developing ways to incorporate these values into health care priority decision making.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2005

A systematic review of existing national priorities for child health research in sub-Saharan Africa.

BACKGROUND: We systematically reviewed existing national child health research priorities in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the processes used to determine them. METHODS: Collaborators from a purposive sample of 20 WHO-AFRO Region countries, assisted by key informants from a range of governmental, non-governmental, research and funding organisations and universities, identified and located potentially eligible prioritisation documents. Included documents were those published between 1990 and 2002 from national or nationally accredited institutions describing national health research priorities for child health, alone or as part of a broader report in which children were a clearly identifiable group. Laboratory, clinical, public health and policy research were included. Two reviewers independently assessed eligibility for inclusion and extracted data. RESULTS: Eight of 33 potentially eligible reports were included. Five reports focused on limited areas of child health. The remaining three included child-specific categories in reports of general research priorities, with two such child-specific categories limited to reproductive health. In a secondary analysis of Essential National Health Research reports that included children, though not necessarily as an identifiable group, the reporting of priorities varied markedly in format and numbers of priorities listed, despite a standard recommended approach. Comparison and synthesis of reported priorities was not possible. CONCLUSION: Few systematically developed national research priorities for child health exist in sub-Saharan Africa. Children's interests may be distorted in prioritisation processes that combine all age groups. Future development of priorities requires a common reporting framework and specific consideration of childhood priorities.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2003

A note on the relative importance that people attach to different factors when setting priorities in health care.

OBJECTIVE: To explore whether and to what extent people wish to give differential priority when asked to choose between providing health care treatment for different individuals or groups, on the basis of a range of factors, ranging from health gain to the number of dependants a person has. DESIGN: A sample of people resident in York self-completed a questionnaire. SETTING: The City of York. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-three members of the general public and 29 undergraduate students. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The relative importance of factors that people think should be taken into account when choosing between providing health care treatment for individuals or groups. RESULTS: The results suggest that health gain and the consequences for health without treatment are two of the most important considerations. CONCLUSIONS: A sample of the general public and undergraduate students wish to take account of a number of personal characteristics when setting priorities in health care.

Consumer Behavior↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The influence of changing demographic patterns on our health promotion priorities.

As we approach the twenty-first century, we face many difficult challenges in planning public health programs to promote health and prevent disease. We focus here on the changing age distribution of the American population and the resulting need to develop and enact effective health promotion efforts for older Americans. Older adults suffer from an increased burden of many chronic diseases, but contrary to past assumptions, they benefit substantially from health promotion and disease prevention efforts. Although numerous health promotion activities can be targeted to aging populations, we pay particular attention to the beneficial role of physical activity promotion, tobacco use cessation, and good nutrition for older adults. In this article, we describe some of the implications of this demographic change in terms of the health care services and needs of older adults, and we suggest priorities for future public health promotion and disease prevention programs.

Aged↗