OBJECTIVE To examine socioeconomic inequalities in neonatal intensive care (NIC) admissions relating to preterm birth, intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), multiple births and other conditions. METHODS Retrospective review of all NIC admissions from 1996 to 2001 throughout a geographically defined region. Area deprivation indices were grouped into quintiles from least (1) to most (5) depri...

This paper analyses the problem of sub-national revenue mobilization in Peru and proposes several policy reforms to improve collection performance while maintaining a sound revenue structure. We analyze the current revenues of regional and municipal governments and identify the main priorities of reform. Among the most important problems are the acute inequalities and inefficiencies associated ...

Compared with Europe and North America, few African countries have consistently undertaken health and standard of living surveys that collect information ranging from socioeconomic status (SES) to self-reported morbidity. Because of the lack of these data, a detailed picture of the nature and magnitude of inequalities in health is lacking. Data from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and cens...

It has been known for some time that inequalities of the ratio of alveolar ventilation to perfusion (VA/Q) exist in the normal human lung and that these inequalities frequently are magnified and distorted by disease. The quantitative assessment of these ratios has proved a difficult task, however, and until recently could be achieved only by a descriptive division of the lung into hypothetical ...

A multitude of factors; tremendous urbanization after the economic reforms of 1978, particularly the open door policy, foreign direct investment, industrialization in the last two decades and globalization have shaken the dynamics of Chinese cityscape, especially in the coastal areas. Level of urbanization is expected to reach 50 percent of the total population, which was less than 20 percent i...

OBJECTIVES To examine gender and regional differences in health expectancies based on the measure of mobility. METHODS Health expectancies by gender and region were computed by Sullivan's method from the fourth Thai National Health Examination Survey (2009). A total of 9,210 older persons aged 60 years and older were included. Mobility limitation was defined as self-reporting of ability to pe...

BACKGROUND Acute respiratory infections (ARI) are major causes of morbidity and mortality in many low-income countries. Although factors associated with ARI symptoms in children under 5 years of age have been identified; however, variation in their prevalence resulting from regional-specific proximate determinants has received little attention. Therefore, we aim to investigate the specific regi...

African policy-makers are often assumed to favour their own homelands and ethnic groups in allocating public funds. Recent research confirms that ethno-regional favouritism needs to be taken seriously in formulating development policy. It also shows that the severity and nature of the problem differs across countries. To counter favouritism and address structural inequalities, policy-makers sho...