其他最新文献

There are approximately 220 million (about 12% regional prevalence) adults living with diabetes mellitus (DM) with its related complications, and morbidity knowingly or unconsciously in the Western Pacific Region (WP). The estimated healthcare cost in the WP and Malaysia was 240 billion USD and 1.0 billion USD in 2021 and 2017, respectively, with unmeasurable suffering and loss of health quality and economic productivity. This urgently calls for nothing less than concerted and preventive efforts from all stakeholders to invest in transforming healthcare professionals and reforming the healthcare system that prioritizes primary medical care setting, empowering allied health professionals, improvising health organization for the healthcare providers, improving health facilities and non-medical support for the people with DM. This article alludes to challenges in optimal diabetes care and proposes evidence-based initiatives over a 5-year period in a detailed roadmap to bring about dynamic and efficient healthcare services that are effective in managing people with DM using Malaysia as a case study for reference of other countries with similar backgrounds and issues. This includes a scanning on the landscape of clinical research in DM, dimensions and spectrum of research misconducts, possible common biases along the whole research process, key preventive strategies, implementation and limitations toward high-quality research. Lastly, digital medicine and how artificial intelligence could contribute to diabetes care and open science practices in research are also discussed.

It is already a common practice for many health care systems in the world to opt for mixed markets where different types of health care facilities compete against each other to offer high-quality health care to patients. Nevertheless, little is known about the effects of the interaction between hospitals of the same or different type on patient health outcomes. This study estimated the impacts of aggregate and specific types of hospital competition by hospital-type on the quality of inpatient care using an analysis dataset comprising 267,183 individuals from China. The Herfindahl-Hirschman index was employed to measure the degree of hospital competition, with length of stay, readmission and mortality being used to measure the quality of inpatient care. The Poisson and binomial logistic models combined with the instrumental variable approach were constructed to estimate the impacts of hospital competition. This study generated three key findings: 1) aggregate hospital competition reduced the quality of inpatient care, as evidenced by a rise in the odds of readmission and length of stay; 2) intra-type hospital competition reduced the quality of inpatient care and in general had larger effects on reducing the quality of inpatient care than inter-type hospital competition; and 3) the only exception was in the way that competition between private nonprofit hospitals contributed to better quality of inpatient care. The overarching suggestion is that instead of treating competition as a panacea for improving health, a flexible plan tailored to specific conditions is needed.

Diabetes mellitus, once a rare diagnosis in precolonial and early post-colonial Nigeria, now has the highest prevalence and fatality rates in sub-Saharan Africa. This increased prevalence is attributed to rising population affluence characterized by sedentary lifestyles and higher consumption of processed and ultra-processed foods. The burden is further exacerbated by a poorly responsive healthcare system. Currently, less than 50% of affected individuals are aware of their condition. Factors such as misconceptions about the disease, a preference for unproven traditional herbal treatments, and the high cost of treatment hinder effective secondary responses. Health system challenges in diabetes management in Nigeria include inadequate implementation of existing policies and guidelines, high out-of-pocket payments, poor quality of healthcare, and limited public education about the disease. To address these issues, we recommend a policy focus on:  1) Implementing actionable policies and guidelines for diabetes prevention and care; 2) Improving the pre-paid care system to reduce out-of-pocket payments; 3) Enhancing the quality of services at all healthcare levels, with the establishment of centers of excellence for specialized diabetes management; 4) Continuing the training, retraining, motivation, and expansion of the workforce responsible for diabetes care; and 5) Health promotion and health awareness aimed at the public to address inaccurate beliefs and practices about diabetes. Addressing these multifaceted factors will help to reduce the rising incidence of diabetes in Nigeria.

Health systems in low- and middle-income countries face the challenge of addressing the growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) with scarce resources to do so. There are cost-effective interventions that can improve management of the most common NCDs, but many remain poorly implemented. One example is fixed dose combinations (FDCs) of medications for hypertension. Included in WHO's Essential Medicines List, FDCs combine two or more blood pressure lowering agents into one pill and can reduce burden on patients and the health system. However, implementation of FDCs globally is poor. We aimed to identify health systems factors affecting implementation of evidence-based interventions for NCDs, and opportunities to address these, using the case study of FDCs in Kenya. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 39 policy-makers and healthcare workers involved in hypertension treatment policy and identified through snowball sampling. Interview data were analyzed thematically, using the Access Framework to categorize themes. Our interviews identified factors operating at the global, national, county, and provider levels. These include lack of global implementation guidance, context specific cost-effectiveness data, or prioritization by procurement agencies and clinical guidelines; perceived high cost; poor data for demand forecasting; insufficient budget for procurement of NCD medications; absence of prescriber training and awareness of clinical guidelines; and habitual prescribing behavior and understaffing limiting capacity for change. We propose specific strategies to address these. The findings of this work can inform efforts to improve implementation of other evidence-based interventions for NCDs in low-income settings.

Diabetes mellitus is seventh-leading cause of death in the United States, and has a substantial economic burden, contributing $237 billion in direct medical costs. The incidence rate of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is expected to continue to increase, disproportionally impacting vulnerable groups. The increasing prevalence and disproportionate burden emphasize the need for health systems to effectively integrate and implement large- and small-scale, culturally tailored nurse-led diabetes prevention programs (DPP) and diabetes self-management education programs (DSME). This two-stage analysis uses a health system approach to provide a synopsis of evidence-based nurse-led DPP and DSME implementation across various health system settings. Using the results from an integrative review, a health system focused framework was developed and applied to two case studies highlighting specific aspects of how successful large- and small-scale nurse-led interventions are integrated into health systems across varying vulnerable populations specifically Veterans, Asian Americans and Haitians. Case study results use examples to show large-scale implementation of DSME across the federal Veterans Health Administration (VHA) improves diabetes self-management and access for Veterans and smaller-scale DPP and DSME programs within community health centers targeting vulnerable populations impact health literacy and diabetes self-management. These examples demonstrate key steps toward improving access and outcomes for diabetes management and the critical role of nurse-led diabetes interventions as a priority across the health system and the importance of financial and organizational support for DPP and DSME programs to overcome access barriers to improve diabetes interventions and management.

The Venezuelan humanitarian crisis has led to the displacement of over 7.7 million migrants, with Colombia hosting around one-third. Colombia has been praised for its progressive policies for Venezuelan migrant integration, and the government's Estatuto Temporal de Protección para Migrantes Venezolanos (ETPMV), introduced in February 2021, provides one of the region's most comprehensive regularization policies, permitting 10 years of residency and access to social protection services, including health insurance. We assessed the impact of the ETPMV on self-reported health insurance enrollment and formal healthcare utilization using two telephone surveys with 4,423 female Venezuelan migrants in 2020 and 2023. We used a difference-in-differences methodological approach, accounting for differences in levels of migrant health system integration across municipalities measured by a municipal enrollment index derived from secondary data. We find that the ETPMV significantly increases health insurance enrollment for female Venezuelan migrants and that while uninsured individuals experience a significant decline in healthcare utilization from 2020 to 2023, insured individuals experience no significant change. Additionally, the effect of insurance varies by municipal enrollment index, with greater impacts of insurance in areas with lower levels of regularization and health insurance enrollment. These results highlight the success of ETPMV in enhancing access to healthcare for Venezuelan migrants, with insurance enrollment providing a protective effect against declines in healthcare utilization compared to uninsured individuals. These findings underscore the importance of comprehensive regularization policies to address migrant health needs, while emphasizing the importance of continued efforts toward integration.

Trust in government has emerged as one of the strongest predictors of national performance in fighting COVID-19. This commentary aims to take stock of the vast literature on trust and compliance with public health measures that has emerged during the pandemic to synthesize policy-relevant recommendations about: 1) How to conceptualize trust; 2) Whether trust is always deserved; and 3) How governments can earn (appropriate levels of) trust. Based on a critical reading of the literature, we develop a framework that conceptualizes trust as falling along a continuum ranging from extreme distrust to blind trust with the ideal point- "informed" or "basic" trust-falling in the mid-point of the continuum. We illustrate the continuum with examples and provide recommendations regarding how governments can build more nuanced disease responses that account for individuals and sub-groups at different rungs on the continuum while (re)building trust. We conclude that trust-building is a long-term project that must continue in non-crisis times.

For over 50 years, health systems the world over have failed people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The WHO documents a quadrupling of people with diabetes in a 34-year period to 422 million in 2014, the overwhelming majority of whom were T2DM. This happened despite extensive scientific literature on the causes of, as well as proven treatments for, this disease. Using a health systems prism to review the extensive medical and nutritional T2DM published research, we identified three main shortcomings of health systems in T2DM: (i) failure in early detection; (ii) failure in understanding the actionable lifestyle drivers; and (iii) subsidizing the causes of the disease. Although small-scale success stories in T2DM control exist, the lack of documented evidence of any country-wide health system's successful attempt to address this epidemic is alarming. The immense and ever-growing health and economic burdens of T2DM should provide all the motivation needed for national and global efforts to counteract the political-economy constraints standing in the way of successful whole-of-system approaches to T2DM.

Background: Understanding the determinants that limit the population's access to surgical care in health services is highly relevant in order to provide data to support political interventions.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the time between diagnosis and elective surgery in adult patients with the longest waiting lists in Brazil; identify the determinants that interfere with access to the health service to perform surgery; and analyze the quality of life after the indicative diagnosis of surgical intervention.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with adult patients treated at three hospitals in the Southeast, North and South regions of Brazil, from October 2020 to October 2022. Data collection included socio-demographic data and assessment of quality of life using the WHOQOL-Bref instrument in the immediate postoperative period and one month after surgery.

Results: A total of 250 patients participated in the study, 55.6% patients from the Southeast, 20.4% patients from the North and 24% patients from the South, with a mean age of 51.86 (SD = 14.27) years and clinical history such as arterial hypertension (p < 0.001). The longest mean waiting time for surgery identified was 26.23 (SD = 17.62) months in the South region, with a significant difference between the evaluated institutions (p = 0.02). Differences were observed between the first place of care of the evaluated patients (p < 0.001). There was a difference in the perception of quality of life between the immediate and late postoperative periods (p = 0.007) and in the physical domain, with an increase in scores among older patients (p = 0.004) and previous clinical history (p = 0.03).

Conclusion: Access to the health system varies by region and does not meet the standards proposed by the Brazilian health system. In addition, it seems that longer waiting times for surgery more perceptibly affect the quality of life of older adults and those with other associated diseases.