Economic inequality, working-class power, social capital, and cause-specific mortality in wealthy countries.

This study tests two propositions from Navarro's critique of the social capital literature: that social capital's importance has been exaggerated and that class-related political factors, absent from social epidemiology and public health, might be key determinants of population health. The authors estimate cross-sectional associations between economic inequality, working-class power, and social capital and life expectancy, self-rated health, low birth weight, and age- and cause-specific mortality in 16 wealthy countries. Of all the health outcomes, the five variables related to birth and infant survival and nonintentional injuries had the most consistent association with economic inequality and working-class power (in particular with strength of the welfare state) and, less so, with social capital indicators. Rates of low birth weight and infant deaths from all causes were lower in countries with more "left" (e.g., socialist, social democratic, labor) votes, more left members of parliament, more years of social democratic government, more women in government, and various indicators of strength of the welfare state, as well as low economic inequality, as measured in a variety of ways. Similar associations were observed for injury mortality, underscoring the crucial role of unions and labor parties in promoting workplace safety. Overall, social capital shows weaker associations with population health indicators than do economic inequality and working-class power. The popularity of social capital and exclusion of class-related political and welfare state indicators does not seem to be justified on empirical grounds.     

Theoretical underpinnings of state institutionalisation of inclusion and struggles in collective health in Latin America

ABSTRACT

Community participation as a strategy in health aims to increase the role of citizens in health decision-making which are contextualised within the institutions of democracy. Electoral representation as the dominant model of democracy globally is based on the elite theory of democracy that sees political decision-making a prerogative of political elites. Such political elitism is counter to the idea of democratic participation. Neoliberalism together with elitism in political sphere have worsened social inequities by undermining working class interests. Latin America has seen adverse consequences of these social inequities. In response, social movements representing collective struggles of organised citizens arose in the region. This paper explores the theoretical underpinnings of democratic participation in contemporary Latin American context at the nexus of emerging social movement activism and policy responses. The paper will use empirical examples to highlight how such democratic practices at the societal level evolved while demanding political inclusion. These societal democratic practices in Latin America are redefining democracy, which continues to be seen in the political sphere only. Health reforms promoting participatory democracy in several Latin American countries have demonstrated that establishing institutions and mechanisms of democratic participation facilitate collective participation by the organised citizenry in state affairs.     

Is the political system really related to health?

We analyze whether the political system and its stability are related to cross-country differences in health. We apply factor analysis on various national health indicators for a large sample of countries over the period 2000–2005 and use the outcomes of the factor analysis to construct two new health measures, i.e., the health of individuals and the quality of the health care sector. Using a cross-country structural equation model with various economic and demographic control variables, we examine the relationship between the type of regime and political stability on the one hand and health on the other. The political variables and the control variables are measured as averages over the period 1980–1999. Our results suggest that democracy has a positive relationship with the health of individuals, while regime instability has a negative relationship with the health of individuals. Government instability is negatively related to individual health via its link with the quality of the health care sector, while democracy is positively related with individual health through its link with income. Our main findings are confirmed by the results of a panel model and various sensitivity tests.     

Is democracy good for health?

Studies of health have recognized the influence of socioeconomic position on health outcomes. People with higher socioeconomic ranking, in general, tend to be healthier than those with lower socioeconomic rankings. The effect of political environment on population health has not been adequately researched, however. This study investigates the effect of democracy (or lack thereof) along with socioeconomic factors on population health. It is maintained that democracy may have an impact on health independent of the effects of socioeconomic factors. Such impact is considered as the direct effect of democracy on health. Democracy may also affect population health indirectly by affecting socioeconomic position. To investigate these theoretical links, some broad measures of population health (e.g., mortality rates and life expectancies) are empirically examined across a spectrum of countries categorized as autocratic, incoherent, and democratic polities. The regression findings support the positive influence of democracy on population health. Incoherent polities, however, do not seem to have any significant health advantage over autocratic polities as the reference category. More rigorous tests of the links between democracy and health should await data from multi-country population health surveys that include specific measures of mental and physical morbidity.     

Country-Level Meritocratic Beliefs Moderate the Social Gradient in Adolescent Mental Health: A Multilevel Study in 30 European Countries

PurposeAdolescents with higher socioeconomic status (SES) report better mental health. The strength of the association—the “social gradient in adolescent mental health”—varies across countries, with stronger associations in countries with greater income inequality. Country-level meritocratic beliefs (beliefs that people get what they deserve) may also strengthen the social gradient in adolescent mental health; higher SES may be more strongly linked to adolescent's perceptions of capability and respectful treatment.MethodsUsing data from 11–15 year olds across 30 European countries participating in the 2013/2014 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study (n = 131,101), multilevel regression models with cross-level interactions examined whether country-level meritocratic beliefs moderated the association between two individual-level indicators of SES, family affluence and perceived family wealth, and three indicators of adolescent mental health (life satisfaction, psychosomatic complaints, and aggressive behavior).ResultsFor family affluence, in some countries, there was a social gradient in adolescent mental health, but in others the social gradient was absent or reversed. For perceived family wealth, there was a social gradient in adolescent life satisfaction and psychosomatic complaints in all countries. Country-level meritocratic beliefs moderated associations between SES and both life satisfaction and psychosomatic complaints: in countries with stronger meritocratic beliefs associations with family affluence strengthened, while associations with perceived family wealth weakened.ConclusionsCountry-level meritocratic beliefs moderate the associations between SES and adolescent mental health, with contrasting results for two different SES measures. Further understanding of the mechanisms connecting meritocratic beliefs, SES, and adolescent mental health is warranted.     

Rethinking priorities in hospital management: a case from Central Asia

ObjectivesTo evaluate post-Soviet aspects of hospital management in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, considering indicators of health care and information on planning processes and factors that affect strategy in their hospitals.MethodsData on indicators of health care were obtained from government agencies, the WHO and the World Bank. A survey of hospital managers in each of the countries was undertaken to obtain opinions on matters influencing the operation of their organizations.ResultsThere was some increase in health expenditure for three countries and a recent decline for Kyrgyzstan. All countries had levels of out of pocket expenditure that were higher than recommended by WHO. Hospital bed occupancy was relatively constant. Average length of stay was higher than in European health systems. Managers in all countries reported greater motivation of staff in their work as a planning benefit. Difficulties with the implementation of plans were greater for Kyrgyzstan than the other countries. Inappropriate assessment during planning seemed important for two countries and changes in environment during implementation for two others. Issues with health policy and regulation, new health technologies, and changes in health behaviour and morbidity were considered significant by managers from all countries.ConclusionsThe health care indicator data and survey findings may reflect differences between the countries in the rate of reorganization of hospital sectors, available resources and political circumstances. They point to areas in need of attention for future hospital planning and challenges for managers in maintaining essential health services.     

Public health, populations, and lethal ingestion

BackgroundIn 2008 the American Public Health Association endorsed lethal ingestion as a public health policy as part of “Patients' Rights to Self-Determination at the End of Life.” Although rhetoric framing physician-assisted suicide (PAS) invokes individual autonomy, public health's focus is populations. Even regarding treatment refusal, its logic and coercive power (e.g., quarantine) subordinate autonomy to population interests. Research indicates health practitioners and disciplines that are closer to persons with terminal conditions oppose more PAS than those having little contact: specifically, public health associations are more willing to authorize life-ending means than disciplines directly caring for the dying. Why is that the case and with what consequences for populations and public health?MethodsContextual analysis of semantics; policy submissions; standards; statutory and regulatory documents; related economic, equity, and demographic discourses is employed; and, finally, scenarios offered of the future.ResultsNotwithstanding rhetoric invoking autonomy, public health's population orientation is reflected in population health measures (e.g., aggregated DALYs, QALYs) that intimate why public health might endorse availing life-ending means. Current associated statutes, regulations, terminology, and data practices compromise public health and semantic integrity (e.g., the falsification of death certificates) and inadequately address population vulnerabilities. In recent policy processes, evidence of patient and system vulnerabilities has not been given due weight while future-oriented scenarios suggest autonomy-based rationales will increasingly yield to population-driven rationales, increasing risk of private and public forms of domination and vulnerabilities at life's end.ConclusionPublic health should address institutionalized violations of data integrity and patient vulnerabilities, while rescinding policy supporting the institutionalization of lethal means.     

Changing definitions altered multimorbidity prevalence,but not burden associations,in a musculoskeletal population

ObjectivesThe inclusion of musculoskeletal conditions within multimorbidity research is inconsistent, and working-age populations are largely ignored. We aimed to: (1) estimate multimorbidity prevalence among working-age individuals with a range of musculoskeletal conditions; and (2) better understand the implications of decisions about the number and range of conditions constituting multimorbidity on the strength of associations between multimorbidity and burden (e.g., health status and health care utilization).Study Design and SettingUsing data from the Australian National Health Survey 2007–08, the associations between burden measures and three ways of operationalizing multimorbidity (survey, policy, and research based) within the working-age (18–64 years) musculoskeletal population were estimated using multiple logistic regression (age and gender adjusted).ResultsDepending on definition, from 20.2% to 75.4% of working-age individuals with musculoskeletal conditions have multimorbidity. Irrespective of definition, multimorbidity was associated with increased likelihood of subjective health burden, pain or musculoskeletal medicines use, nonmusculoskeletal specialist and pharmacist (advice only) consultations, and reduced likelihood of not consulting health professionals. A group with intermediate health outcomes was considered multimorbid by some, but not all definitions. With the restrictive policy and research multimorbidity definitions, this intermediate group is included within the reference population (i.e., are considered nonmultimorbid). This worsens the reference group's apparent health status thereby leveling the comparative burden between those with and without multimorbidity. Consequently, dichotomous cut points lead to similar associations with burden measures despite the increasingly restrictive multimorbidity definitions used.ConclusionsAll multimorbidity definitions were associated with burden among the working-age musculoskeletal population. However, dichotomous cut points obscure the gradient of increased burden associated with restrictive definitions.     

Employment relations, social class and health: a review and analysis of conceptual and measurement alternatives

Employment relations, as a theoretical framework for social class, represent a complementary approach to social stratification. Employment relations introduce social relations of ownership and control over productive assets to the analysis of inequalities in economic (e.g., income), power (occupational hierarchy), and cultural (e.g., education) resources. The objectives of this paper are to briefly clarify the theoretical background on socio-economic indicators used in social epidemiology and to conduct a review of empirical studies that adopt relational social class indicators in the socio-epidemiological literature. Measures of employment relations in social determinants of health research can be classified within two major conceptual frameworks: 1) "Neo-Weberian", like the National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC) which is widely used in the United Kingdom; and 2) "Neo-Marxian", like Erik O. Wright's social class indicators, which are being used by social epidemiologists in the Americas and Europe. Our review of empirical findings (49 articles found) reveals that the relation between employment relations and health does not necessarily imply a graded relationship. For example, small employers can exhibit worse health than highly skilled workers, and supervisors can display worse health than frontline workers. The policy implications of employment relations research are therefore different, and complement those of income or education health gradient studies. While the latter studies tend to emphasize income redistribution policy options, employment relations implicate other factors such as workplace democracy and social protection. Our analysis confirms that the current transformation of employment relations calls for new social class concepts and measures to explain social inequalities in health and to generate policies to reduce them.     

Employment relations,social class and health: A review and analysis of conceptual and measurement alternatives

Employment relations, as a theoretical framework for social class, represent a complementary approach to social stratification. Employment relations introduce social relations of ownership and control over productive assets to the analysis of inequalities in economic (e.g., income), power (occupational hierarchy), and cultural (e.g., education) resources. The objectives of this paper are to briefly clarify the theoretical background on socio–economic indicators used in social epidemiology and to conduct a review of empirical studies that adopt relational social class indicators in the socio-epidemiological literature.Measures of employment relations in social determinants of health research can be classified within two major conceptual frameworks: 1) “Neo-Weberian”, like the National Statistics Socio–Economic Classification (NS–SEC) which is widely used in the United Kingdom; and 2) “Neo-Marxian”, like Erik O. Wright’s social class indicators, which are being used by social epidemiologists in the Americas and Europe. Our review of empirical findings (49 articles found) reveals that the relation between employment relations and health does not necessarily imply a graded relationship. For example, small employers can exhibit worse health than highly skilled workers, and supervisors can display worse health than frontline workers. The policy implications of employment relations research are therefore different, and complement those of income or education health gradient studies. While the latter studies tend to emphasize income redistribution policy options, employment relations implicate other factors such as workplace democracy and social protection. Our analysis confirms that the current transformation of employment relations calls for new social class concepts and measures to explain social inequalities in health and to generate policies to reduce them.     

社会因素与人群健康状况关系研究

目的:探讨影响人群整体健康水平的主要社会因素,为卫生工作转变思想提供参考。方法:以173个国家2000年度卫生、经济、民主政治、教育、社会发展以及能源利用等指标数据为研究对象,运用多元逐步回归分析方法筛选变量,并建立社会因素与人群期望寿命的关系模型。结果:影响人群健康状况的主要社会因素不是经济投入和卫生工作,而是社会资本要素。结论:提高人群整体健康水平的有效途径是建立并充分利用社会资本。     

Municipal Health Councils: activity and representation of grassroots communities

This article was based on the results of research concerning health policy in municipalities that achieved the most extensive development of decentralization and innovation in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The study applied a questionnaire for health system users' representatives in Municipal Health Councils. The central issues were: the Councils' political role; social control by the Councils, viewed as surveillance by organized society over government actions; the nature of social representation exercised by the Council members; and the type of mandate they serve. Community representatives in the Councils reinforce aspects pertaining to the exercise of representation in unequal societies. There is a predominance of a differentiated elite consisting of older males with more schooling and higher income than the community average. The notion of "social control" as the basis for the Councils is difficult for the members to grasp. Exercise of representation is diffuse, occurring by way of designation by community associations, election in assemblies, or designation by institutional health policy agencies.     

A scoping review of the implementation of health in all policies at the local level

ObjectivesHealth in All Policies (HiAP) is an approach to public policies across sectors that systematically takes into account the health implications of decisions, seeks synergies, and avoids harmful health impacts in order to improve population health and health equity. HiAP implementation can involve engagement from multiple levels of government; however, factors contributing or hindering HiAP implementation at the local level are largely unexplored. Local is defined as the city or municipal level, wherein government is uniquely positioned to provide leadership for health and where many social determinants of health operate. This paper presents the results of a scoping review on local HiAP implementation.MethodsPeer reviewed articles and grey literature were systematically searched using the Arksey and O’Malley framework. Characteristics of articles were then categorized, tallied and described.Results23 scholarly articles and four government documents were identified, ranging in publication year from 2002 to 2016 and originating from 14 countries primarily from North America and Europe. A wide range of themes emerged relating to HiAP implementation locally including: funding, shared vision, national leadership, ownership and accountability, local leadership and dedicated staff, Health Impact Assessment, and indicators.ConclusionCommon themes were found in the literature regarding HiAP implementation locally. However, to better clarify these factors to contribute to theory development on HiAP implementation, further research is needed that specifically investigates the facilitators and barriers of HiAP locally within their political and policy context.     

Evidence for factors associated with diet and physical activity in African and Caribbean countries

ObjectiveTo identify and describe summarized evidence on factors associated with diet and physical activity in low- and middle-income countries in Africa and the Caribbean by performing a scoping review of reviews.MethodsWe searched the Medline®, LILACS, Scopus, Global Health and Web of Science databases for reviews of factors associated with diet or physical activity published between 1998 and 2019. At least 25% of studies in reviews had to come from African or Caribbean countries. Factors were categorized using Dahlgren and Whitehead’s social model of health. There was no quality appraisal.FindingsWe identified 25 reviews: 13 on diet, four on physical activity and eight on both. Eighteen articles were quantitative systematic reviews. In 12 reviews, 25–50% of studies were from Africa or the Caribbean. Only three included evidence from the Caribbean. Together, the 25 reviews included primary evidence published between 1926 and 2018. Little of the summarized evidence concerned associations between international health or political factors and diet or associations between any factor and physical activity across all categories of the social model of health.ConclusionThe scoping review found a wide range of factors reported to be associated with diet and physical activity in Africa and the Caribbean, but summarized evidence that could help inform policies encouraging behaviours linked to healthy diets and physical activity in these regions were lacking. Further reviews are needed to inform policy where the evidence exists, and to establish whether additional primary research is needed.     

From political pacts to health policy pacts

The object of this article is the pact policy of the Unified Health System (SUS). The few works available in the literature about health pacts frequently relates them to the principles of SUS consolidation, specifically to the implantation of decentralization. Here, the roots of this policy are evidenced showing how they are linked with the restructuration movement of the proper Brazilian State in the last decades from the 20th century, by democracy rebuilding, federalism and State Reform. During this period, some advances in politics democracy were identified, however a few results in consolidation of social democracy were identified. Health pacts are articulated with social and political pacts, which are essential to make life possible in society, guarantee government legitimacy, governance and public policies effectiveness. Pact is a management mechanism that comprehends permanent negotiation, looking for surpasses intergovernmental conflicts, moderate by solidary responsibility. Throughout negotiation of goals, indicators and actions, pacts consist in a way of accountability and transparency, able to promote social control, and the own government control.     

The healthy food environment policy index: findings of an expert panel in New Zealand

ObjectiveTo assess government actions to improve the healthiness of food environments in New Zealand, based on the healthy food environment policy index.MethodsA panel of 52 public health experts rated the extent of government implementation against international best practice for 42 indicators of food environment policy and infrastructure support. Their ratings were informed by documented evidence, validated by government officials and international benchmarks.FindingsThere was a high level of implementation for some indicators: providing ingredient lists and nutrient declarations and regulating health claims on packaged foods; transparency in policy development; monitoring prevalence of noncommunicable diseases and monitoring risk factors for noncommunicable diseases. There was very little, if any implementation of the following indicators: restrictions on unhealthy food marketing to children; fiscal and food retail policies and protection of national food environments within trade agreements. Interrater reliability was 0.78 (95% confidence interval, CI: 0.76–0.79). Based on the implementation gaps, the experts recommended 34 actions, and prioritized seven of these.ConclusionThe healthy food environment policy index provides a useful set of indicators that can focus attention on where government action is needed. It is anticipated that this policy index will increase accountability of governments, stimulate government action and support civil society advocacy efforts.     

Policy Stringency,Handwashing and COVID-19 cases: Evidence from Global dataset

Objective: Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments globally have introduced policy measures to contain the spread of the virus. Popular COVID-19 containment measures include lockdowns of various forms (aggregated into government response stringency index [GRSI]) and handwashing (HWF). The effectiveness of these policy measures remains unclear in the academic literature. This study, therefore, examines the effect of government policy stringency and handwashing on total daily reported COVID-19 cases.Method: We use a comprehensive dataset of 176 countries to investigate the effect of government policy stringency and handwashing on daily reported COVID-19 cases. In this study, we apply the Lewbel (2012) two-stage least squares technique to control endogeneity.Results: Our results indicated that GRSI significantly contributes to the increase in the total and new confirmed cases of COVI-19. Sensitivity analyses revealed that the 1st, 4th, and 5th quintiles of GRIS significantly reduce total confirmed cases of COVID-19. Also, the result indicated that while the 1st quintile of GRIS contributes significantly to reducing the new confirmed cases of COVID-19, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th quintiles of GRSI contribute significantly to increasing the new confirmed cases of COVID-19. The results indicated that HWF reduces total and new confirmed cases of COVID-19; however, such effect is not robust to income and regional effects. Nonlinear analysis revealed that while GRSI has an inverted U-shaped relationship with total and new confirmed cases of COVID-19, HWF has a U-shaped relationship.Conclusion: We suggest that policymakers should focus on raising awareness and full engagement of all members of society in implementing public health policies rather than using stringent lockdown measures.     

Exploring sociodemographic and economic factors that promote adverse drug reactions reporting by patients

BackgroundAdverse drug reactions (ADRs) are recognized as a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, and an important cost factor to health systems. Patient reporting of ADRs has emerged as an important topic in recent years but reporting rates are still low in many countries.ObjectiveTo explore different countries’ sociodemographic and economic features as explanatory factors for population ADRs reporting, including the propensity of patients’ reporting to pharmacovigilance authorities.MethodsCross-sectional observational design. A data set of 42 global sociodemographic and economic factors for 44 countries were retrieved, as to analyse statistical associations between these factors and the patient reporting rate of ADRs. Multivariate logistic regression models were designed to identify the predictive covariables.ResultsHealth investment indicators, such as per capita public health expenditure, hospital bed density and under five mortality rate were the relevant factors responsible to discriminate between countries that have higher patient reporting rates.ConclusionsThis study shows that healthcare investment-related factors help explain the propensity of patients to report suspected ADRs, while pharmacovigilance features were not directly associated with higher patient participation in drug safety mechanisms. Although general, these results point a direction in further policy making to improve resources allocation concerning the promotion of patients’ participation.     

Democratisation and health after the fall of the Wall

OBJECTIVES: The fall of the Wall in 1989 can be seen as a natural experiment in the epidemiological sense to further examine the relation between democracy and health. DESIGN AND SETTING: Ecological study in the 23 post-communist countries, during the last decade of the 20th century, exploring the relations between the level of democratisation and health, taking into account as relevant confounders wealth and the level of inequality. MAIN RESULTS: A significant correlation (p<0.01) was found of the democratic deficit of the countries with the health indicators circa 2000, with values of Pearson's coefficient of -0.629 for life expectancy, 0.760 for infant mortality, and 0.555 for maternal mortality. These associations remain significant after adjustment by lineal regression for GNP per capita and the Gini coefficient, with R(2) values of 0.336 for life expectancy, 0.575 for infant mortality, and 0.529 for maternal mortality. CONCLUSIONS: These findings add pieces of evidence to the previously reported cross sectional association between democracy and health.