我国贫困地区县域内健康扶贫工作进展与政策建议

通过健康扶贫政策梳理、定量分析卫生健康统计数据和典型案例分析,研究我国县域内健康扶贫工作的进展、成效及问题,提出后脱贫期县域内医疗卫生服务改革与发展的建议。整体上看,我国健康扶贫工作成效显著:医疗卫生机构"三个一"和医疗服务能力"三条线"目标基本实现;卫生技术人员配置基本达到"三个一"要求;贫困县床位和设备配置达到或接近全国平均水平;通过新建临床专科、开展新技术和新项目等,贫困县专科服务能力得到提升;此外,部分贫困地区积极探索县域内医疗卫生综合改革。今后,新脱贫地区面临的主要挑战是县域内卫生服务体系建设仍需加强,基层卫生人才队伍差距和财政投入与卫生改革协同不足三大主要问题。建议中央财政继续支持县域内卫生服务体系建设;以人才建设为抓手,提升县域内医疗服务能力;强化保障措施,推进县域内医疗卫生综合改革。     

我国"乡聘村用"政策典型地区实践经验与启示

目的:分析我国"乡聘村用"政策进展和典型地区实践经验,分析推进"乡聘村用"政策的问题与挑战,为推进乡村医生队伍建设提供政策建议。方法:利用我国卫生健康统计年鉴相关数据进行定量分析;收集我国典型地区政策、报告等资料,进行案例分析。结果:"乡聘村用"在我国具有一定的政策基础,在全国范围内已经具有一定实践规模。从人员资质、人事管理和养老保障及资金来源方式等角度看,在典型地区的实践对推进"乡聘村用"政策的挑战是增加财政支出、乡村医生队伍老龄化和县乡管理能力不足。结论与建议:典型地区经验表明"乡聘村用"政策是转变乡村医生身份、解决乡村医生养老等社会保障问题的有效途径。建议各地借鉴典型经验积极推进"乡聘村用"政策,加大地方财政支持力度;加强县级和乡镇卫生院管理能力;同时,稳步推进政策,避免各类乡村医生之间产生矛盾。     

基于政策工具的我国三医联动政策量化分析

目的:对我国发布的27份三医联动政策文件的政策工具进行分析,探究我国三医联动政策体系的着重点与缺失点,为健全我国三医联动政策体系提供参考。方法;以我国2014—2019年发布的27份三医联动政策文件为研究对象,以政策工具为视角对纳入分析的政策文件进行摘录和编码,采用内容分析法和定量分析法对各项政策工具进行统计分析,并确定其运用情况。结果:260个政策编号中,需求型,供给型和环境型政策工具分别占6.9%、24.6%和68.5%;医疗、医保和医药政策工具分别占54.2%、24.6%和21.2%。由此可以看出,我国三医联动改革对环境现状的依赖程度较大,需求与供给政策相对不足,而医疗则是三医联动改革的核心关键点。结论:应适当增加需求型和供给型政策工具,着重解决医疗方面的重难点问题,促使医疗、医保、医药三个利益主体达成合力,形成“三医既联又动”的协同发展机制。     

The impact of COVID-19 on routine pediatric vaccination delivery in Brazil

IntroductionChildhood vaccination rates have decreased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Brazilian immunization program, Programa Nacional de Imunização (PNI), is a model effort, achieving immunization rates comparable to high-income countries. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in pediatric vaccinations administered by the PNI, as a proxy of adherence to vaccinations during 2020.MethodsData on the number of vaccines administered to children under 10 years of age nationally and in each of Brazil’s five regions were extracted from Brazil’s federal health delivery database. Population adjusted monthly vaccination rates from 2015 through 2019 were determined, and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models were used to forecast expected vaccinated rates in 2020. We compared the forecasts to reported vaccine administrations to assess adequacy of pediatric vaccine delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic.ResultsFrom January 2015 to February 2020, the average rate of vaccine administration to children was 53.4 per 100,000. After February 2020, this rate decreased to 50.4, a 9.4% drop compared to 2019 and fell outside of forecasted ranges in December 2020. In Brazil's poorest region, the North, vaccine delivery fell outside of the forecasted ranges earlier in 2020 but subsequently rebounded, meeting expected targets by the end of 2020. However, in Brazil's wealthiest South and Southeast regions, initial vaccine delivery fell and remained well below forecasted rates through the end of 2020.ConclusionIn Brazil, despite a model national pediatric vaccination program with an over 95% national coverage, vaccination rates decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Coordinated governmental efforts have ameliorated some of the decrease, but more efforts are needed to ensure continued protection from preventable communicable diseases for children globally.     

Receipt of Recommended Prenatal Interventions and Birth Weight Among African-American Women: Analysis of Data from the 1988 National Maternal and Infant Health Survey

Objectives: While the importance of exploring and better measuring elements of prenatal care have been noted in the public health literature, the components and timing of such services have been poorly examined for the overall pregnant population and specifically for African-Americans, who traditionally have had higher rates of low birth weight and premature delivery. This study explores the association between patient receipt of selected recommended prenatal care interventions and infant birth weight in a nationally representative sample of African-American women, while controlling for the influence of low birth weight risk indicators. Method: This is a retrospective case-control analysis using survey data of women who delivered normal birth weight, moderate low birth weight, and very low birth weight newborns in 1988. A sample of 3905 African-American women who responded to the 1988 National Maternal and Infant Health Survey is examined based on maternal recall of receipt of six clinical screening procedures and seven health-promotion recommendations. Birth weight measures were obtained from linked 1988 birth certificate data. Results: The initial results indicated that women who do not receive all of the recommended health-promotion advice are more likely to deliver very low birth weight infants than women who receive all of the advice in the content of their prenatal care, after controlling for low birth weight risks (OR = 1.28; 95% CI = 1.01, 1.7). However, when breast-feeding advice is removed from the aggregation of health-promotion advice, the significant effect of advice on very low birth weight is negated. No other significant group variations in the receipt of clinical screening procedures or health-promotion advice for women who gave birth in the remaining birth weight categories are observed. Conclusions: Nationally recommended initial clinical screening procedures and health-promotion advice in prenatal care content do not appear to be associated with a reduction in low birth weight for African-American women. More research is needed to better assess the impact of other antenatal interventions, particularly those given to women with a higher prevalence of poor birth outcomes.     

Injecting nation: achieving control of hepatitis C in Australia

Since Australia banned heroin in 1953 consumption of illicit drugs, deaths, crime and corruption related to drugs have steadily increased. Injecting drug use (IDU) in Australia is now a significant public health problem linked each year to approximately 500 overdose deaths and more than 6000 hepatitis C infections. At least 85% of prevalent and incident hepatitis C cases in Australia are injecting drug users (IDUs) with annual incidence estimated at 15%. Although poorly documented, increasing numbers of patients with end-stage liver disease from hepatitis C now appear to present in Australia. This reflects a heroin-injecting epidemic commencing a quarter of a century ago, the close association between drug injecting and hepatitis C and the long delay between hepatitis C infection and complications. The overall health and economic burden of hepatitis C may soon exceed HIV. Control is far more difficult to achieve for hepatitis C than HIV because of much higher baseline prevalence levels and far greater infectiousness by blood to blood spread. Transmission appears to follow minimal breaches of infection control guidelines. Hepatitis C has not yet become a priority public health issue in Australia. No national prevention strategy has been proposed. Prevention strategies (such as needle exchange or methadone) which controlled HIV among IDUs should be expanded, with the expectation of some useful reduction of spread but without achieving control of hepatitis C. Other options for control must be considered. Eradicating illicit drug use in Australia is unachievable. Virtually eradicating injecting drug use by facilitating a switch to non-injecting routes of administration (NIROA) is achievable (although difficult) and this could control hepatitis C. NIROA will have the probable additional benefit of reducing drug overdose deaths. NIROA has begun recently to replace injecting in several countries without government intervention. Powerful cultural, pharmacological and economic factors strongly reinforce drug injecting. Economic impediments to NIROA could be reduced by drug policy reform. Facilitating a switch to NIROA carries some risk of increased discrimination directed against an already marginalized population. A major obstacle to harm reduction is the common assumption that any relaxation of drug policy invariably leads to increased consumption. Switching the predominant route of administration of illicit drugs from IDU to NIROA should be the major focus of national efforts to control hepatitis C and overdose deaths in Australia.     

Accounting for susceptibility in risk assessment: The need for full disclosure

Many Environmental Laws create the unrealistic expectation that science can be used to determine ‘safety'. The many uncertainties surrounding environmental risks, as well as individual, group and societal differences about what is considered ‘safe', make it inevitable that policy decisions must be made. It is appropriate that such decisions be shaped by politics and social issues, as well as be informed by science and economics, but care should be taken to distinguish between policy and fact. Not much is known about the nature and magnitude of environmental susceptibilities. Credible environmental decisions require that scientists, risk assessors and decision-makers acknowledge this, and that they take care to distinguish policy calls from scientific fact.     

Cannabis laws: an analysis of costs

There is evidence that the use of cannabis is increasing in Australia, with stable black-market prices, despite the 9-year National Campaign Against Drug Abuse, increasing expenditure to enforce the laws against cannabis use, and the seizure of large plantations of cannabis plants. Recent government data are used to estimate the conservative cost of drug-law enforcement against cannabis use as being $329m in 1991-92. Alternatives to the existing regime are examined, including expiation, decriminalization, and legalization.     

The development of guidelines for drug and alcohol dependence treatment: affecting policy and practice

The rationale and methodology behind the Australian Quality Assurance Project is described. The Project aimed to develop guidelines for treatment content based on three sources of information: research findings, current practice and expert opinion. The issue of the gap between research and practice is discussed, as well as the role of dissemination in altering clinician behaviour.