International Journal for Equity in Health最新文献

{"title":"Barriers to healthcare for racialised populations in Europe: a scoping review of reviews.","authors":"Yolanda González-Rábago, Nerea Lanborena, Elena Rodríguez-Álvarez","doi":"10.1186/s12939-025-02577-1","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12939-025-02577-1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":13745,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for Equity in Health","volume":"24 1","pages":"212"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144730300","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Addressing health inequities: validating the Chinese-WSF28 workstyle for work-related musculoskeletal symptoms among cleaners.","authors":"Kin Cheung, Ka Yan Ma, E S P Cheung, Benjamin Chiu-Hang Sin, Kwan Wai Mui, Yuen Kwan Ko, Sin Man Tsoi, Nok Hang Leung, Ka Yee Lui, Winnie Wing Man Ng, Pui Sze Bessie Chan, H C Lau, Yu Hin Brian Lee","doi":"10.1186/s12939-025-02587-z","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12939-025-02587-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>This pioneering study examined the psychometric properties of workstyle related to work-related musculoskeletal symptoms (WRMS) among cleaners, a neglected workforce. Like many low-income, low-skilled workers, cleaners have unique workstyles. This research assessed the Workstyle-Short Form (WSF) to identify WRMS in various body parts among cleaners.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>433 cleaners were surveyed in the study. The items were modified from Chinese-WSF24 (C-WSF24) and new items were added according to the unique working environment of Chinese cleaners. A scale with 33 items of the workstyle was rigorously analysed for its psychometric properties through content validity, factor analysis, known group validity and convergent validity.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A panel of 13 experts reviewed the scale over three rounds until a consensus was reached. Factor analysis generated a four-factor solution using exploratory factor analysis, which included working through pain, social reactivity at work, demands at work and breaks. This solution comprised 28 items and accounted for 46.12% of the total variance. The overall results of the confirmatory factor analysis further support this hypothesized factor structure, supported by the Workstyle Model. Validation against known groups also showed that the Chinese-WSF28 (C-WSF28) can discriminate between cleaners with and without WRMS in various body parts. Furthermore, C-WSF28 demonstrated convergent validity through statistically significant association with factors contributing to WRMS.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The C-WSF28 is a valid instrument, enabling comprehensive measurement of cleaners' workstyle and facilitating rigorous evaluation of workstyle interventions for enhanced outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":13745,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for Equity in Health","volume":"24 1","pages":"213"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144730299","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How do World Health Organization technical officers working on noncommunicable diseases approach health equity?","authors":"Michelle Amri, Khadija Rashid, Makda Habtegergesa, Jesse B Bump","doi":"10.1186/s12939-025-02552-w","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12939-025-02552-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Health equity has become a common objective in both global and public health. Although there has been recent scholarship to critically examine how this concept has been applied by the World Health Organization (WHO), there has not been any detailed investigation into the WHO's work on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). This study aims to fill this gap by investigating the approaches taken by WHO technical officers working on NCDs to address health equity.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The perspectives of technical officers working on NCDs at the WHO were collated through semi-structured key informant interviews. Interviews were transcribed verbatim to facilitate data analysis by two independent reviewers in NVivo 14.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Key informants felt: a disconnect between NCDs programmatic efforts and health equity; that equity in health primarily involves ensuring equitable access to healthcare, with an emphasis on addressing financial hardship; and that equity in health entails targeting those who are most 'vulnerable'. In investigating how health equity is being applied in NCD efforts, it was apparent that a consideration of health equity is missing in program implementation and policy design, and that donors' goals supersede long-term prevention efforts. Lastly, in pinpointing concrete changes or results seen around how health equity is operationalized in NCDs efforts, several success stories from various regions emerge.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The findings of this study demonstrate that WHO technical officers working on NCDs often possessed a limited understanding of health equity that resulted in little meaningful action to embed health equity considerations into programmatic and policy work. Evidently, WHO technical officers need to better navigate or contest industry interference and learn more about health equity as a concept and the links to NCDs.</p>","PeriodicalId":13745,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for Equity in Health","volume":"24 1","pages":"210"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12285130/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144698447","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Conceptualization of gender in published malaria and gender research: a systematic descriptive review.","authors":"Deborah Atobrah, Benjamin K Kwansa, Patience G Okyere-Asante, Abena Kyere, Delali M Badasu, Irene A Kretchy","doi":"10.1186/s12939-025-02545-9","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12939-025-02545-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Malaria disproportionately affects vulnerable and marginalised population subgroups, including women and girls, migrants, and persons with disabilities. Gender roles expose men and women differently to malaria risks. Similarly, restrictive gender norms pose unique challenges to women and girls in accessing preventive treatment and care. Gender norms that perpetuate hegemonic masculinity also expose men and boys to malaria, resulting from occupational exposure and untimely access to malaria treatment and care. Unfortunately, the gender dimensions of malaria remain under-researched. This systematic descriptive review examines how gender has been conceptualised in published malaria and gender research over the last three decades.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The keywords \"malaria AND gender\" were used to search for articles published in English from 1995 to 2024 in four databases (PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, and Google Scholar). The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) was adopted for this review. The Rayyan intelligent systematic review software was used to collate, manage, and screen articles retrieved from the search engines. The gender analysis matrix advanced by Morgan and colleagues was used to analyse the conceptualisation of gender in published malaria and gender research.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A total of 57 published articles that met the inclusion criteria were included in the final review. We found that the majority of the published papers on malaria and gender have been biomedical in nature, consequently reducing gender analysis to only sex-disaggregated data. Moreover, most of the studies employed a quantitative research approach, with the majority being laboratory-based research, focussing on sub-Saharan Africa.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>There is a need for more social science research that employs qualitative, mixed-methods, and community-based approaches to malaria and gender research. These approaches extend gender analysis beyond sex and/or gender-disaggregated data, and includes other domains, such as access to resources; distribution of labour; practices and roles; norms, values and beliefs; and decision-making power.</p>","PeriodicalId":13745,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for Equity in Health","volume":"24 1","pages":"211"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12285161/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144698472","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Engaging people with lived experience on community advisory boards in community-based participatory research: a scoping review.","authors":"Georgia Nelson, Meghan Jenkins, Bruce Knox, Eva Purkey, Sophy Chan-Nguyen, Michele Cole, Logan Jackson, Imaan Bayoumi","doi":"10.1186/s12939-025-02573-5","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12939-025-02573-5","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":13745,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for Equity in Health","volume":"24 1","pages":"209"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12273312/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144667591","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Household-related stress, intimate partner violence and mental health: exploring the syndemic in urban slum women in Bangladesh during Covid-19 pandemic.","authors":"Kamrun Nahar Koly, Rasma Muzaffar, Zinnatun Nessa, Arif Billah, Sabrina Rasheed, Anuj Kapilashrami","doi":"10.1186/s12939-025-02572-6","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12939-025-02572-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Mental health conditions are emerging concerns that were worsened by Covid-19, especially in developing countries. The pandemic instigated an increase in household stress particularly among migrant women living in urban slums due to overcrowding, increased caregiving burden, and intimate partner violence, resulting in deteriorating mental health. This study assessed the prevalence of mental health conditions and intimate partner violence during Covid-19 and also explored the pathways between pandemic-related household stress and mental health outcomes with the mediating role of crowding and intimate partner violence in the Bangladeshi urban slums.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>The cross-sectional survey was conducted among internal migrant women from five slums of Urban Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems operated by International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh. Face-to-face interviews were conducted from August to October 2022 using a semi-structured questionnaire that had three validated screening tools to measure depression, anxiety and intimate partner violence. A path analysis using structural equation modelling with maximum likelihood methods was performed to understand the objectives.</p><p><strong>Result: </strong>Among the total 405 participants, the majority of women (68.40%) were housewives and their husbands (46.43%), were engaged as daily wagers. A large portion of the women (38.77%) had only primary education and one-third of the surveyed women (36.5%) reported increased household stress due to Covid-19. About 71% of women experienced an event of intimate partner violence with reports of emotional (57.3%), physical (49.4%), and sexual violence (39.0%). The prevalence of anxiety and depression were 73.8% and 65.2%, respectively. The structural equation modelling path analysis revealed that household stress increased the likelihood of anxiety and depression. Moreover, household stress has a direct effect on anxiety, while it has an indirect effect on both anxiety and depression with these effects mediated by intimate partner violence.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>These novel baseline findings may support the relevant stakeholders to design further research and programmes to strengthen emergency preparedness for the women living in informal settlements of Urban Bangladesh. A rights-based approach, as has been shown effective elsewhere, may offer a strategy to enhance the overall well-being.</p>","PeriodicalId":13745,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for Equity in Health","volume":"24 1","pages":"207"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2025-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12265257/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144649389","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Correction: Exploring good mental health for people with intellectual disabilities: a qualitative interview study with mental health experts.","authors":"Sophie Komenda-Schned, Paula Moritz, Sarah Jasmin Landskron, Alma Rosa Herscovici, Charlotte Schomburg, Julia Lehner, Brigitte Lueger-Schuster, Luis Salvador-Carulla, Elisabeth Lucia Zeilinger","doi":"10.1186/s12939-025-02585-1","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12939-025-02585-1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":13745,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for Equity in Health","volume":"24 1","pages":"208"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2025-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12269292/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144649388","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Potential to perpetuate social biases in health care by Chinese large language models: a model evaluation study.","authors":"Chenxi Liu, Jianing Zheng, Yushu Liu, Xi Wang, Yuting Zhang, Qiang Fu, Wenwen Yu, Ting Yu, Wang Jiang, Dan Wang, Chaojie Liu","doi":"10.1186/s12939-025-02581-5","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12939-025-02581-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Large language models (LLMs) may perpetuate or amplify social biases toward patients. We systematically assessed potential biases of three popular Chinese LLMs in clinical application scenarios.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We tested whether Qwen, Erine, and Baichuan encode social biases for patients of different sex, ethnicity, educational attainment, income level, and health insurance status. First, we prompted LLMs to generate clinical cases for medical education (n = 8,289) and compared the distribution of patient characteristics in LLM-generated cases with national distributions in China. Second, New England Journal of Medicine Healer clinical vignettes were used to prompt LLMs to generate differential diagnoses and treatment plans (n = 45,600), with variations analyzed based on sociodemographic characteristics. Third, we prompted LLMs to assess patient needs (n = 51,039) based on clinical cases, revealing any implicit biases toward patients with different characteristics.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The three LLMs showed social biases toward patients with different characteristics to varying degrees in medical education, diagnostic and treatment recommendation, and patient needs assessment. These biases were more frequent in relation to sex, ethnicity, income level, and health insurance status, compared to educational attainment. Overall, the three LLMs failed to appropriately model the sociodemographic diversity of medical conditions, consistently over-representing male, high-education and high-income populations. They also showed a higher referral rate, indicating potential refusal to treat patients, for minority ethnic groups and those without insurance or living with low incomes. The three LLMs were more likely to recommend pain medications for males, and considered patients with higher educational attainment, Han ethnicity, higher income, and those with health insurance as having healthier relationships with others.</p><p><strong>Interpretation: </strong>Our findings broaden the scopes of potential biases inherited in LLMs and highlight the urgent need for systematic and continuous assessments of social biases in LLMs in real-world clinical applications.</p>","PeriodicalId":13745,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for Equity in Health","volume":"24 1","pages":"206"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2025-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12265265/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144642515","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Engaging underrepresented populations in public health monitoring: strategies for people with mild intellectual disability or low literacy skills.","authors":"Meike C M Theunissen, Monique C J Koks-Leensen, Jane van Geenen, Geraline L Leusink, Jenneken Naaldenberg, Kirsten E Bevelander","doi":"10.1186/s12939-025-02578-0","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12939-025-02578-0","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":13745,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for Equity in Health","volume":"24 1","pages":"204"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12257827/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144636955","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Bridging the gap: telemedicine as a solution for HIV care inequities in rural and vulnerable communities.","authors":"Chisom Ogochukwu Ezenwaji, Esther Ugo Alum, Okechukwu Paul-Chima Ugwu","doi":"10.1186/s12939-025-02584-2","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12939-025-02584-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Despite advancements in HIV management, healthcare inequalities continue to exist, especially in rural and populations vulnerable to HIV, where factors such as distance, low income, prejudice, and a shortage of healthcare workers contribute to delayed diagnosis and inadequate care.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>This commentary explores how telemedicine can close the healthcare disparity gap for HIV patients in rural and vulnerable settings by bringing care closer and decreasing stigma.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The study analyzed primary sources, such as articles from PubMed, Science Direct, the Web of Science, and WHO reports from 2020 to 2024, including case studies, to examine the role of telemedicine in global HIV care. It assessed challenges, effectiveness, and infrastructural barriers, as well as policy implications.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Telemedicine in HIV care for rural and vulnerable groups includes virtual consultation, monitoring, telehealth, digital health education, diagnostic services, telecounselling, telemental health, telepreventive care, and emergency services. It improves treatment involvement, reduces travel, ensures confidentiality, and reduces social disapproval. However, internet inefficiency and infrastructure issues in isolated regions hinder its use.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Telemedicine effectively addresses HIV care gaps in rural and high-risk populations by increasing service utilization, reducing stigma, and improving patient care quality; however, long-term sustainability requires infrastructure improvements and internet connectivity issues.</p>","PeriodicalId":13745,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for Equity in Health","volume":"24 1","pages":"205"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12261626/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144636954","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}