the application of equiframe in the analysis of sexual and reproductive health policies by ivanova et al to a new thematic area, their selection of only some of the core concepts of human rights in health service provision and the addition of new vulnerable groups relevant to the purpose of their analysis, are all very welcome developments. we also applaud their application of equiframe to poli...

The need to strengthen the field of health policy and systems research has been widely recognized among public health research organizations. This is especially so in the case of Latin America and the Caribbean. Moreover, there is also an increasing interest in the development of new research models with greater capacity to influence policy agendas and health reforms. This publication argues th...

Self-help groups in the United Kingdom continue to grow in number and address virtually every conceivable health condition, but they remain the subject of very little theoretical analysis. The literature to date has predominantly focused on their therapeutic effects on individual members. And yet they are widely presumed to fulfil a broader civic role and to encourage democratic citizenship. Th...

BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE Lack of a robust analytical tool for trend analysis of population and health indicators is the basic rationale of this study. In an effort to fill this gap, this study advances 'Change-Point analyzer' as a new analytical tool for assessment of the progress and its pattern in population and health indicators. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS The defining feature of 'chan...

BACKGROUND: This article explores the transfer of World Health Organization's (WHO) policy initiative Health for All by the Year 2000 (HFA2000) into national contexts by using the changes in the public health policies of Finland and Portugal from the 1970's onward and the relationship of these changes to WHO policy development as test cases. Finland and Portugal were chosen to be compared as th...

background in 2004, the health system in iran initiated an organizational reform aiming to increase the autonomy of teaching hospitals and make them more decentralized. the policy led to the formation of a board of trustees in each hospital and significant modifications in hospitals’ financing. since the reform aimed to improve its predecessor policy (implementation of hospital autonomy began i...

background health policies are important instruments for improving population health. however, experience suggests that policies designed for the whole population do not always benefit the most vulnerable. participation of vulnerable groups in the policy-making process provides an opportunity for them to influence decisions related to their health, and also to exercise their rights. this paper ...

background: hiv/aids control are one of the most important goals of the health systems. the aim of this study was to determine how hiv/aids control was initiated among policy makers' agenda setting in iran.   methods: a qualitative research (semi-structured interview) was conducted using kingdon's framework (problem, policy and politics streams, and policy windows and policy entrepreneurs) to a...

this commentary on the editorial ‘the politics and analytics of health policy’ by professor calum paton focuses on two issues. first, it points to the unclear links between ideas, ideology, values, and discourse and policy, and warns that discourse is often a poor guide to enacted policy. second, it suggests that realism, particularly ‘programme theory’ are useful tools for health policy analys...