BACKGROUND Although nearly half of bladder cancer cases are due to smoking, the cause of nearly half is unexplained. PURPOSE This study aims to determine whether an inverse association exists between ultraviolet B (UVB) irradiance and incidence rates of bladder cancer worldwide. METHODS This study used an ecologic approach. Age-adjusted incidence rates of bladder cancer from 2002 were obtai...

BACKGROUND Inequality in households' and individuals' consumption expenditures is one of the most important aspects of health status difference among households and individuals. OBJECTIVES We investigated the impact of some macro-economic factors specially inequality factors on the Iranian rural health status since 1986 through 2012. PATIENTS AND METHODS We conducted a longitudinal ecologic...

and obscures the secular increase in real expenditure on means-tested transfer programs taken as a whole. Indeed, Figure 1, which shows expenditures since 1968 in the 80 largest programs in the country, indicates that per-capita expenditure on means-tested programs is higher today than ever in its history. The enormous growth in real expenditure that occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s, ...

Do policy conditions attached to International Monetary Fund (IMF) lending programmes have an impact on government health expenditure in developing countries? Yes, according to a large body of literature (see Kentikelenis, 2017), and our recent article (Stubbs et al., 2017). We systematically reviewed IMF loan agreements and staff reports to generate a database of “binding” conditions that coul...

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 Asian ...