OBJECTIVE The objective of this preliminary study was to evaluate the perceptions of internationally deployed Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) personnel regarding the psychosocial support needs of these teams. METHODS The DMAT questionnaire was sent to 34 members of Australian medical teams involved in deployments to the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami and the 2006 Java earthquake. Twenty...

Many of the documents in this series are prepublication/preprint articles, which may subsequently appear (part or whole) in peer reviewed journals and books. In most cases they are draft documents, the purpose of which is to foster discussion and debate, prior to publication elsewhere, whilst ideas are still fresh. Further information about the research programme and other papers in this series...

INTRODUCTION Less than half of all U.S. adults meet the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines. Leader behaviors and group cohesion have been associated with increased participation or adherence in sports team and exercise class settings. Physical activity interventions in community settings that encompass these factors may enhance intervention adherence. The purpose of this study is to examine the ...

Discussions on the health-disease process and health promotion indicate the need to reach beyond the limits of the health sector itself to link knowledge from various fields in order to promote better health conditions for the population. Inter-sector approaches have thus emerged as a new rationale for guiding public policies. This study aimed to analyze the implementation of inter-sector actio...

The World Health Assembly passed a resolution on the importance of engaging with the private health sector. However, the reality is that universal health coverage aspirations are particularly challenging when there is a significant private health sector. This sector in South Africa suffers from rapidly increasing costs, inflation and volume of services (unnecessary medical tests or treatments)....

BACKGROUND The major objectives of this study were to evaluate the existing primary health care service provisions in the public and private sector and utilization of the services, and to assess the existing manpower and material resources. METHODS Data were collected through interviews with the primary health care providers. Data were also collected from the records maintained at the polycli...

International collaborative health research is justifiably expected to help reduce global health inequities. Investment in health policy and systems research in developing countries is essential to this process but, currently, funding for international research is mainly channelled towards the development of new medical interventions. This imbalance is largely due to research legislation and po...

BACKGROUND Physician tracking systems are critical for health workforce planning as well as for activities to ensure quality health care - such as physician regulation, education, and emergency response. However, information on current systems for physician tracking in sub-Saharan Africa is limited. The objective of this study is to provide information on the current state of physician tracking...