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Reorienting Health Ministry roles in transition settings: capacity and strategy gaps.

Health authorities in developing countries must often cope with rapid changes in the administrative, policy and socioeconomic contexts in which they work. Changes in this external environment have important implications for the roles that health planners can effectively play and the leverage they exercise throughout the system. This paper examines the challenges associated with reorienting ministry roles from administrative fiat to overall orchestration and strategic steering, using health workforce management in transitional Vietnam as a backdrop. Decentralization, commercialization of services and rising inequalities have reduced the efficacy of the administrative controls and standardized strategy on which Vietnam's Ministry of Health has traditionally relied. Reorientation, in Vietnam and elsewhere, depends on bridging significant capacity and strategy gaps, notably in the strengthening of information, planning and accountability systems that respect both the limitations of central control and the diversity of local conditions.

Delivery of Health Care↗

Transitioning to adult health care facilities for young adults with a chronic condition.

Youth with chronic conditions and special health care needs are surviving into adulthood. In certain circumstances, these youth may choose to remain with their pediatricians for their health care needs. However, most youth will require complex coordinated care in order for them to live full and productive lives to the best that they are able. Issues such as independence and dependence, educational and vocational choices, and insurance are important in transitioning to an adult-focused system of health care. This article addresses strategies that will assist young adults with the process of transitioning from pediatric care centers to adult health care centers. Despite the importance of providing a transition program, few transition programs exist for young people with chronic conditions (Sawyer, Blair, & Bowes, 1997). This article will also discuss barriers to the transition process.

Adolescent↗

Theorizing health in the context of transition: the dynamics of perceived morbidity among women in peri-urban Maharashtra, India.

In international health, transition models that project global trends in fertility, morbidity, and mortality have been challenged for their underlying assumptions about modernization and the inability to capture inequities in the distribution of health and health services, the resurgence of infectious diseases and an apparent rise in perceived morbidity. The evidence that individuals' perceived morbidity rarely corresponds to biomedical measures of health status prompts questions regarding the relationship of epidemiologic transitions to shifts in ways of recognizing, representing, and responding to health and illness. In both international and national health policy and research, the discursive parameters of "women's health" in India largely reflect the logic of transition models and rarely consider how women themselves see "health" and its determinants, the dynamics of women's perceived morbidity, and women's response to changes in local medical discourse and practice. Drawing on survey and ethnographic data collected during 1996-97 in a peri-urban community located near the city of Pune in Maharashtra, Western India, I examine the context and content of intergenerational differences in perceived morbidity among women. Among these women, perceived morbidity is an important gauge of the conceptual health transition taking place in urbanizing areas of India, and, potentially, it tells us far more about social change and its impact on health than do statistical representations and models.

Adolescent↗

Orocaecal transit time in health and in thyroid disease.

Altered bowel habit commonly occurs in thyroid disease. We measured orocaecal transit in healthy volunteers and in hyperthyroid and hypothyroid patients before and after treatment, using the lactulose hydrogen breath test incorporating a standard liquid meal to obtain a more physiological assessment. Mean transit time in 12 control subjects was 85 (8) minutes (mean (SE)) (mean coefficient of variation between replicate studies, 8.6% (3%)). In eighteen hyperthyroid patients transit was more rapid at 49 (4) minutes (p less than 0.01). Ten hypothyroid patients had a transit time similar to controls at 91 (9) minutes. Transit time returned to normal in thyrotoxic patients after treatment but in eight hypothyroid patients retested, it remained unchanged. Our findings suggest that (a) the inclusion of a liquid meal provides a reproducible method of measuring orocaecal transit using the lactulose hydrogen breath test, (b) rapid small bowel transit in thyrotoxicosis may be one factor in the diarrhoea which is a feature of the disease and (c) if altered gut transit is the cause of sluggish bowel habit in hypothyroidism, delay in the colon, and not small bowel, is likely to be responsible.

Adult↗

Economic transition and maternal health care for internal migrants in Shanghai, China.

Economic migration and growth in informal employment in many of the major cities of developing countries, combined with health sector reforms that are increasingly relying on insurance and out-of-pocket payment, are raising concerns about equity and sustainability of economic and social development. In China, the number of internal migrants has dramatically grown since economic transition started in 1980, and maternal health care for these is a pressing issue to be addressed. To provide information for policy-makers and health administrators, a medical records review, a questionnaire survey and qualitative interviews were carried out in Minhang District, Shanghai. This paper describes important inequities in main maternal health outcomes and utilization indicators relating to economic and social transformation of the Chinese society. Analysis of the data collected clarifies that insufficient antenatal care is one of the main determinants for poor maternal health outcomes and that migrants are using antenatal care services significantly less than permanent residents. The data suggest that there is no single explanatory factor, but that migrants are faced with a package of obstacles to accessing health care services, and that health systems may need to rethink and redesign their delivery approaches to specifically target those groups that are faced with such multi-faceted packages of obstacles to service-access. Although the study addresses a specific Chinese phenomenon related to internal migration and registration of residency, parallels can be drawn to other settings where a combination of economic and social transitions of the society and a reform of health care financing are potentially creating the same conditions of significant inequalities.

Adult↗

Child health services in transition: I. Theories, methods and launching.

AIM: To describe an evidence-based model for preventive child health care and present some findings from baseline measurements. METHODS: The model includes: parent education; methods for interaction and language training; follow-up of low birthweight children; identification and treatment of postnatal depression, interaction difficulties, motor problems, parenthood stress, and psychosocial problems. After baseline measurements at 18 mo (cohort I), the intervention was tested on children from 0 to 18 mo at 18 child health centres in Uppsala County (cohort II). Eighteen centres in other counties served as controls. Two centres from a privileged area were included in the baseline measurements as a "contrasting" sample. Data are derived from health records and questionnaires to nurses and mothers. RESULTS: Baseline experiment (n = 457) and control mothers (n = 510) were largely comparable in a number of respects. Experiment parents were of higher educational and occupational status, and were more frequently of non-Nordic ethnicity. Mothers in the privileged area (n = 72) differed from other mothers in several respects. Experiment nurses devoted considerably fewer hours per week to child health services and to child patients than did control nurses. CONCLUSIONS: Despite certain differences, experiment and control samples appeared comparable enough to permit, in a second step, conclusions about the effectiveness of the intervention.

Child Health Services↗

Community mental health services in transition: who is benefiting?

This study addresses four major questions about the delivery of community-based mental health services: Which target groups are benefiting from recent policy shifts? What services are expanding? What staffing changes are occurring? How are these changes being financed? Findings indicate that state policies are aiding chronically mentally ill clients, but that services for other important target groups are being reduced substantially.

Adolescent↗

From assurance to insurance in Russian health care: the problematic transition.

OBJECTIVES: Given the declining health status of the Russian population and the negative social impact of ongoing economic reforms, it is important to understand the nature and scope of Russia's innovations in health care financing. METHODS: Data on Russian health care and its financing were gathered from Russian newspapers and journals. US government agency reports, recent press accounts, and the authors' observations and interviews in Russia. RESULTS: The 1991 statutory basis for the Russian mandatory medical insurance system replaced the traditional, state-funded medical care system with a regional system principally reliant on an enterprise-based with-holding tax plus supplementation by local government and, to a minor extent, federal funds. The regional agent for distribution and management of these funds is a series of Territorial Health Insurance Funds. Implementation thus far has been highly uneven among territories. CONCLUSIONS: An insurance model patterned after the Western example may not be the optimal solution to Russia's current health financing problems. Given the chaotic nature of political and economic reform, Russia may simply not be ready for market-based medical insurance.

Health Care Reform↗

Adolescents with chronic disease. Transition to adult health care.

Older adolescents are in the midst of many life changes related to physical and emotional development, education and career choices, family and peer relationships. The presence of a chronic disease adds an additional burden. At this stage of development, transfer of care to an adult facility becomes a major challenge for the adolescent, parents, and pediatric and adult care providers. This article describes an interdisciplinary transition program from pediatric to adult health care for older adolescents with rheumatic diseases. Care is transferred to an internist-rheumatologist who collaborates closely with the pediatric team. Scope of the program includes pretransitional assessments and interventions, including education, counseling, and referral around career, postsecondary education, sexuality, and other transitional issues. Benefits of and barriers to a structured transition program are discussed.

Adolescent↗

A sequential model of older workers' labor force transitions after a health shock.

In this paper we estimate and validate a three-period sequential model of older workers' labor force transitions following a health/disability shock, using retrospective information from Spanish cross-section data. Central to the analysis are the effects of the various disabilities and their severity. We find that the probability of remaining employed decreases both with age and the severity of the shock. Moreover, we find strong interactions between age and severity for older workers and none for prime-age workers. Suffering any kind of disability reduces the probability of being employed immediately prior to retirement age, and in such cases it is severity which is the strongest indicator. With respect to demographics, we find that female gender, having a retired spouse or being married all reduce the probabilities of both remaining in employment and returning to work following a spell of inactivity; in turn, principal breadwinner status, education and skill levels increase this likelihood.

Cross-Sectional Studies↗

Community mental health services in transition.

Major policy and funding shifts over the last several years have stimulated a series of changes in local mental health agencies. Services offered CMHCs became less comprehensive and more oriented toward chronic and severely ill patients. Decreases occurred in other services, primarily indirect services. Changes in services and in clients served caused reconfiguration in staffing patterns, and also affected the types of activities some staff perform. The implications of these service and staffing changes for local mental health agencies are discussed.

Community Mental Health Centers↗

Developing health insurance in transitional Asia.

Many European and Asian economies are currently undergoing a process of economic transition away from state based command systems to market led economies. The impact of transition, such as a decline in public expenditure, break up of state enterprises and economic recession, has affected levels of funding available for social sectors. In the health sector, health insurance is being introduced as a way of alleviating the decline in funding arising from these processes. Most of the Former Soviet Union and a number of other Asian transition economies are currently introducing, extending or considering payroll based systems of health insurance. Comparisons with many Latin American countries, where social security based insurance has been encouraged since the first World War, can be illuminating. Experience suggests that, various factors have impeded or permitted development in these countries. General processes of economic change (transition factors) tend to affect all economies attempting to change the basis for public funding of services. Structural factors, such as urbanisation and the level of state or industrial employment, act as longer term inhibitors to the extension of coverage. These factors vary considerably across transition economies. This suggests that while a social security base for insurance may be a viable option for smaller industrialised European transitional economies, this is not the case for many of larger less industrialised economies. It is unclear how insurance will develop in the future. If a separate insurance fund is maintained it is important that its' purchasing function is developed. Otherwise it is not clear what value is added to the current health system. If entitlement is to be based on contribution, with the fund based on geographic or employment groups, systems for ensuring access for those not in employment and not classified as socially protected must be developed.

Asia↗