Bulletin of the World Health Organization最新文献

Carlos Monteiro talks to Gary Humphreys about Brazil's dietary transition and the need for substantial change at every level of food production, marketing and consumption to address the global obesity pandemic.

The aim of this paper is to contribute technical arguments to the debate about the importance of health examination surveys and their continued use during the post-pandemic health financing crisis, and in the context of a technological innovation boom that offers new ways of collecting and analysing individual health data (e.g. artificial intelligence). Technical considerations demonstrate that health examination surveys make an irreplaceable contribution to the local availability of primary health data that can be used in a range of further studies (e.g. normative, burden-of-disease, care cascade, cost and policy impact studies) essential for informing several phases of the health planning cycle (e.g. surveillance, prioritization, resource mobilization and policy development). Examples of the use of health examination survey data in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region (i.e. Finland, Italy, Malta and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) and the WHO Region of the Americas (i.e. Chile, Mexico, Peru and the United States of America) are presented, and reasons why health provider-led data cannot replace health examination survey data are discussed (e.g. underestimation of morbidity and susceptibility to bias). In addition, the importance of having nationally representative random samples of the general population is highlighted and we argue that health examination surveys make a critical contribution to external quality control for a country's health system by increasing the transparency and accountability of health spending. Finally, we consider future technological advances that can improve survey fieldwork and suggest ways of ensuring health examination surveys are sustainable in low-resource settings.

Objective: To assess national pandemic preparedness and response plans from a health system perspective to determine the extent to which implementation strategies that support health system performance have been included.

Methods: We systematically mapped pandemic preparedness and response implementation strategies that improve resilience to pandemics onto the Health System Performance Assessment Framework for Universal Health Coverage. Using this framework, we conducted a document analysis of 14 publicly available national influenza pandemic preparedness plans, submitted to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, to assess how well health system functions are accounted for in each plan.

Findings: Implementation strategies found in national influenza pandemic preparedness plans do not systematically consider all health system functions. Instead, they mostly focus on specific aspects of governance. In contrast, little to no mention is made of implementation strategies that aim to strengthen health financing. There was also a lack of implementation strategies to strengthen the health workforce, ensure availability of medical equipment and infrastructure, govern the generation of resources and ensure delivery of public health services.

Conclusion: While national influenza pandemic preparedness plans often include provisions to support health system governance, implementation strategies that support other health system functions, namely, resource generation, service delivery, and in particular, financing, are given less attention. These oversights in key planning documents may undermine health system resilience when public health emergencies occur.

Sexual violence against women is a human rights violation and public health concern, with serious implications for women's physical and mental health. Reducing non-partner sexual violence, including rape, sexual assault and other forms of non-contact sexual abuse, is one of the main indicators of the sustainable development goals. World Health Organization estimates, based on available prevalence data from 137 countries between 2000 and 2018, showed that, globally, 6% of women aged 15-49 years reported experiencing sexual violence in their lifetime from someone other than an intimate partner, with prevalence rates varying across regions. However, the reporting, measurement and documentation of the global extent of non-partner sexual violence against women is methodologically challenging, resulting in a gross underestimation of its magnitude and impact. To prevent and respond to this issue, policy-makers must consider interventions on education, access to relevant health-care services, public awareness, and effective and comprehensive legislation. To better estimate the prevalence of both sexual violence overall and non-partner sexual violence, it is essential to continue to strengthen the measurement of non-partner sexual violence, including the types of acts asked about and the mode of interviewing. Further research is needed to understand the cumulative impact of different forms of sexual violence on the lives of women and girls, including sexual violence during childhood and its associated risk with further exposure. Funding is required for more research and implementation of interventions to prevent and reduce all forms of violence against women and girls, including sexual violence.

Githinji Gitahi talks to Gary Humphreys about the value of cross-sectoral collaboration and health system assessment in the drive towards universal health coverage (UHC).

The post-pandemic era presents an opportunity to prioritize health system performance assessment. Adèle Sulcas reports.

Objective: To conduct a systematic review on the effects of multisectoral interventions for health on health system performance.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review according to the preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols. We searched for peer-reviewed journal articles in PubMed®, Scopus, Web of Science, Cumulated Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews on 31 August 2023 (updating on 28 February 2024). We removed duplicates, screened titles and abstracts, and then conducted a full-text eligibility and quality assessment.

Findings: We identified an initial 1118 non-duplicate publications, 62 of which met our inclusion and exclusion criteria. The largest proportions of reviewed studies focused on multisectoral interventions directly related to specific health outcomes (66.1%; 41 studies) and/or social determinants of health (48.4%; 30 studies), but without explicit reference to overall health system performance. Most reviewed publications did not address process indicators (83.9%; 52/62) or discuss sustainability for multisectoral interventions in health (72.6%; 45/62). However, we observed that the greatest proportion (66.1%; 41/62) considered health system goals: health equity (68.3%; 28/41) and health outcomes (63.4%; 26/41). Although the greatest proportion (64.5%; 40/62) proposed mechanisms explaining how multisectoral interventions for health could lead to the intended outcomes, none used realistic evaluations to assess these.

Conclusion: Our review has established that multisectoral interventions influence health system performance through immediate improvements in service delivery efficiency, readiness, acceptability and affordability. The interconnectedness of these effects demonstrates their role in addressing the complexities of modern health care.