BACKGROUND Although regional socioeconomic (SE) factors have been associated with worse health outcomes, prior studies have not addressed important confounders or work disability. METHODS A national sample of 59 360 workers' compensation (WC) cases to evaluate impact of regional SE factors on medical costs and length of disability (LOD) in occupational low back pain (LBP). RESULTS Lower nei...

Background In 2003 the Afghan Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) adopted the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) for delivering child health services in primary care facilities. Key problems were subsequently identified: high cost of training, frequent health worker turnover and poor quality of IMCI implementation by those trained – specifically in the use of job aids and protocols ...

OBJECTIVE To identify factors associated with client perceptions of the quality of primary care services in Afghanistan. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey of outpatient health facilities, health workers, patients and caretakers. SETTING Primary health care facilities in every province of Afghanistan. Main outcome measure Numerical scale of client perceptions of service quality. RESULTS Client...

THE FIRST DOCUMENTED SEROCONVERSION OF HIV-1 FOLLOWing a human bite1 raises an important concern regarding occupational transmission of HIV from patient to health care worker. The HIV seroconversion described [in The Lancet article “Transmission of HIV-1 by human bite”] suggests that for HIV-1 transmission to occur, there must be blood in the mouth of the source patient and a break in the integ...

BACKGROUND Ghana is one of the sub-Saharan African countries making significant progress towards universal access to quality healthcare. However, it remains a challenge to attain the 2015 targets for the health related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) partly due to health sector human resource challenges including low staff motivation. PURPOSE This paper addresses indicators of health work...

background and objectives: informal payment in the health settings is a significant challenge facing the health system, with consequences such as inequity in access to healthcare services, distrust to health care system, and dissatisfied customers. detailed identification of the nature of the problem is perquisite to developing relevant overcoming strategies. given that, this study aimed at pro...

background: the aim of the study was to compare the effects of 'face-to-face education' and 'educational movies' on  'knowledge' and 'practice' of women of child-bearing-age, in terms of health-care during pregnancy and during infancy in a suburban region near tehran city, iran.   methods: in this quasi-experimental study, the sample included 873 married women. questionnaires for knowledge and ...

BACKGROUND Health outcomes for Indigenous Australians with diabetes in remote areas remain poor, including high rates of avoidable complications which could be reduced with better primary level care. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a community-based health-worker led case management approach to the care of Indigenous adults with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes in primary care servic...

BACKGROUND In Western countries, health and social welfare facilities are not easily accessible for elderly immigrants and their needs are suboptimally addressed. A transition is needed towards culturally sensitive services to overcome barriers to make cure and care accessible for elderly immigrants. We developed an intervention programme in which ethnic community health workers act as liaisons...

Why don't health care workers universally embrace vaccination to prevent vaccine preventable diseases and protect themselves and their patients? To address this problem most vaccination campaigns focus on providing education and information to health care workers. While knowledge is a necessary first step, it is likely not sufficient to increase health care worker vaccine uptake. We discuss a n...