conclusions: the results of the present research indicates that the emphasis of the his evaluation moves from technical subjects to human and organizational subjects, and from objective to subjective issues. therefore, this issue entails more familiarity with more qualitative evaluation methods. in most of the reviewed studies, the main focus has been laid on the necessity of using multi-method...

BACKGROUND Social theories suggest that neighborhood quality affects health. Observer ratings of neighborhoods should be subjected to psychometric tests. METHODS African American Health (AAH) study subjects were selected from two diverse St. Louis metropolitan catchment areas. Interviewers rated streets and block faces for 816 households. Items and a summary scale were compared across catchme...

BACKGROUND If access to equitable health care is to be achieved for all, policy documents must mention and address in some detail different needs of groups vulnerable to not accessing such health care. If these needs are not addressed in the policy documents, there is little chance that they will be addressed at the stage of implementation. OBJECTIVES This paper reports on an analysis of 11 A...

BACKGROUND The Ebola virus disease outbreak of 2014 was the largest, longest and most devastating in the history of the disease. It demonstrated the social and economic impact an emerging infectious disease can have in a globalized world. Health systems in affected countries were stretched to the point of near collapse, while social relations and traditional practices were negatively impacted. ...

BACKGROUND Globally, sub-Saharan Africa bears the greatest burden of disease. Strengthened research capacity to understand the social determinants of health among different African populations is key to addressing the drivers of poor health and developing interventions to improve health outcomes and health systems in the region. Yet, the continent clearly lacks centers of research excellence th...

health systems, particularly those in low- and middle-income countries (lmics), need stronger management and leadership capacities. management and leadership are not synonymous, yet should be considered together as there can be too much of one and not enough of the other. in complex adaptive health systems, the multiple interactions and relationships between people and elements of the system me...

the instrumental use of social networks has become a central tenet of international health policy and advocacy since the millennium project. in asking, ‘how to facilitate social contagion?’, karl blanchet of the london school of hygiene and tropical medicine therefore reflects not only on the recent success, but also hints to growing challenges; the tactics of partnerships, alliances and platfo...

the study of decentralization in fiji shows that increasing capacities is not necessarily related to increasing decision space of local officials, which is in contrast with earlier studies in pakistan. future studies should address the relationship among decision space, capacities, and health system performance.

The potential of community-directed interventions to strengthen health systems " C o m m u n i t y-d i r e c t e d t r e a t m e n t not only advances health promotion a nd disease control, it also strengthens basic health system structures… helping countries w o r k t o w a r d s t h e i r M i l l e n n i u m Development Goal commitments. " National health systems in many African countries are...