In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), naturally occurring social networks may be particularly vital to health outcomes as extended webs of social ties often are the principal source of various resources. Understanding how social network structure, and influential individuals within the network, may amplify the effects of interventions in LMICs, by creating, for example, cascade effects t...

BACKGROUND The early decades of the 21st century are considered to be the era of human resources for health (HRH). The World Health Report (WHR) 2006 launched the Health Workforce Decade (2006-2015), with high priority given for countries to develop effective workforce policies and strategies. In many countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), particularly those classified as Low and ...

People living with HIV (PLWH) experience greater psychological distress than the general population. Evidence from high-incomes countries suggests that psychological interventions for PLWH can improve mental health symptoms, quality of life, and HIV care engagement. However, little is known about the effectiveness of mental health interventions for PLWH in low and middle-income countries (LMICs...

Health care systems all over the world are experiencing some change as they look for a new balance between supply and demand. This article provides context for the U.S. health care financing debate by examining the health care systems of five other countries: Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, China and India. The authors show that, with few exceptions, countries around the world have seen ...

This paper contributes to the existing literature by examining the determinants of health financing in 177 developed and developing countries. The study introduces the variables of government effectiveness and control of corruption to capture the impact of governance quality on different mechanisms of health financing. Utilizing panel data analysis, namely system-GMM estimators, to obtain unbia...

An influential policy idea states that reducing inequality is beneficial for improving health in the low and middle income countries (LMICs). Our study provides an empirical test of this idea: we utilized data collected by the Demographic and Health Surveys between 2000 and 2011 in as much as 52 LMICs, and we examined the relationship between household wealth inequality and two health outcomes:...

Three-quarters of the global mental health burden exists in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), yet the lack of mental health services in resource-poor settings is striking. Task-sharing (also, task-shifting), where mental health care is provided by non-specialists, has been proposed to improve access to mental health care in LMICs. This multi-site qualitative study investigates the accep...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the shortage of mental health professionals in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). METHODS We used data from the World Health Organization's Assessment Instrument for Mental Health Systems (WHO-AIMS) from 58 LMICs, country-specific information on the burden of various mental disorders and a hypothetical core service delivery package to estimate how many psychiatris...

INTRODUCTION Health care financing provides the resources and economic incentives for operating health systems and is a key determinant of health system performance. Equitable financing is based on: financial protection, progressive financing and cross-subsidies. This paper describes Uganda's health care financing landscape and documents the key equity issues associated with the current financi...