3 Introduction 4 Overview of the Health System 5 Hospital System 7 Poverty, Burden of Disease, and Hospital Beds 8 Expenditures for Curative Services 10 Methods to Assess Hospital Performance 11 Hospital’s Capacity and Utilization 13 Hospital Performance 15 Discussion 16 Implications for Management 19 Implications for Policy 20 Limitations 20 Conclusions 21 References 22

OBJECTIVE This study evaluates whether recent positive economic trends and pro-poor health policies have resulted in more health equity and explores key factors that explain such change. METHODS This study focuses on the evolution of measures of health status (self-reported morbidity) and use of health care services obtained from the 2004 and 2008 rounds of the Peruvian National Household Sur...

Objective: The study attempts to understand the effectiveness of the self-affirmation intervention for subclinical depression in Indian adults. Methods: An experimental research design was employed. Using purposive sampling, 80 participants with subclinical depression were chosen who were randomly allocated equally to the experimental (intervention) and control (non-intervention) conditions. T...

BACKGROUND Since the WHO's Alma Ata Declaration on Primary Health Care (PHC) there has been debate about the advisability of adopting comprehensive or selective PHC. Proponents of the latter argue that a more selective approach will enable interim gains while proponents of a comprehensive approach argue that it is needed to address the underlying causes of ill health and improve health outcomes...

SSc is a multiorgan disease with significant morbidity that is associated with poor health-related quality of life. Treatment of this condition is often organ based and non-curative. However, there are newer, potentially disease-modifying therapies available to treat certain aspects of the disease. This review focuses on old and new therapies in the management of SSc in clinical practice.

This health utilization survey of 720 children (age <2 y) from 5 rural blocks in Vellore district identified that 80% used government facilities for preventive care while >80% used private facilities for curative services. Only 0.7% were home deliveries, 46% reported illness in the two-week recall, and 83% sought care for these illness.

OBJECTIVE This study addresses the need to measure and explain the inequalities and inequities of Jamaica's health system to generate evidence to support policy development, monitoring, and evaluation. METHODS The nationally representative Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions data sets for 2004 and 2007 were used to produce concentration curves and concentration indices for three health outcom...

UNLABELLED The Infant Clinic Program believes that oral care should begin within the first days of life in order to guarantee good oral health throughout life; however it has been observed that many dental professionals are not trained attend to this segment of the population. OBJECTIVES The purpose of the Infant Clinic course is to offer the theoretical and practical knowledge that dentists ...