In many Asian countries, physicians both prescribe and dispense drugs. This practice is hypothesized to have caused high drug expenditure and widespread prescription of antibiotics in Asia. Recently, Taiwan implemented the separation policy on an experimental basis. This paper's objective is to empirically evaluate the impact of Taiwan's reform to separate drug prescribing and dispensing on dru...

BACKGROUND This study aimed to examine the availability, use, and affordability of medicines in urban China following the 2009 Health Care System Reform that included implementation of universal health coverage (UHC). METHODS This longitudinal study was performed in Hangzhou (high income, eastern China) and Baoji (lower income, western China). Five yearly household surveys were conducted (one...

complementary and alternative medicine (cam) is frequently used in portugal and it contributes to the improvement of people’s health. cam and western medicine (wm) are taken as complements both in the diagnosis and the treatment stage. the portuguese health system is able to generate certified cam professionals but the provision of cam care and services is not included in the national health sy...

This report presents the latest estimates of Hong Kong domestic health spending for financial years 1989/90 to 2008/09, cross-stratified and categorised by financing source, provider and function. Total expenditure on health (TEH) was HK$84,391 million in financial year 2008/09, which represents an increase of HK$5030 million or 6.3% over the preceding year. Amid the financial tsunami in late 2...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Income inequality is associated with poor health. Inequities exist in service utilization and financing for health care. Health care costs push high number of households into poverty in India. We undertook this study to ascertain inequities in health status, service utilization and out-of-pocket (OOP) health expenditures in two States in north India namely, Haryana and P...

objective: to identify the relationship between socioeconomic status, health system development and the incidence, prevalence and mortality of  tuberculosis in asia and the pacific. methods: incidence, prevalence and mortality rates of  tuberculosis and 20 variables of  socioeconomic, health system and biological behavioral issues were included in the study involving all 46 countries of  the as...

This paper examines stationarity and cointegration of health expenditure and GDP, for a sample of 21 OECD countries using data for the period 1960-1997, by applying a test battery that allows robust inference to be made on the stationarity and cointegration issue. Trend stationarity and no-cointegration are tested using new country-by-country and panel tests, not previously applied in this sett...

We empirically investigate the determinants of local authority mental health expenditure in England. We adopt a reduced form demand and supply model, extended to incorporate possible interaction among authorities, as well as unobserved heterogeneity. The model is estimated using an annual panel dataset that allows us to explore both time-series and cross-municipality variation in mental health ...

'Diabesity' is the term for diabetes occurring in the context of obesity. In this review, we will overview the latest epidemiological data available describing the rising prevalence, health impact and economic impact of diabesity. We will also outline the measures required to slowdown this newly evolving epidemic. The global prevalence of diabetes in 2010 was 284 million people worldwide consti...