{"title":"The British NHS at 75: Past, Contemporary, and Future Challenges.","authors":"Ben Williams","doi":"10.1177/27551938241280175","DOIUrl":"10.1177/27551938241280175","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article assesses how and why the National Health Service (NHS) has remained at the forefront of British politics and society for 75 years amid significant economic pressures, organizational strain, shifting ideological trends, ongoing reforms, and an unprecedented public health emergency. The postwar \"years of consensus\" evolved into alleged decline and ostensible neglect during the 1980s, while New Labour sought to rejuvenate this core public service after 1997, featuring investment and often controversial reforms that challenged the party's social democratic values. Amid the New Labour era, NHS powers filtered down to devolved administrations, while from 2008 retrenchment and austerity ensued, fueled by global recession. Austerity eventually subsided, yet from early 2020 the NHS swiftly faced the extreme conditions of the globalized Covid-19 pandemic. The service continues to face challenges regarding its longer-term viability, and this article analyzes this scenario, within the context of the NHS's 75-year historical legacy, its contemporary status, comparative international trends, and likely future evolution.</p>","PeriodicalId":73479,"journal":{"name":"International journal of social determinants of health and health services","volume":" ","pages":"76-87"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11583510/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142382638","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Sociology of Plasma Proteins - A Technocrat's Perspective.","authors":"Albert Farrugia","doi":"10.1177/27551938241264764","DOIUrl":"10.1177/27551938241264764","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This commentary addresses the article \"Toward a Sociology of Plasma Products\" by Holloway and Grundy in this issue of the <i>International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health Services</i>. The program of research proposed by the authors positioning the medico-industrial field of plasma products within a sociological context is supported, this being an endeavor which has not been attempted previously. I seek to augment Holloway and Grundy's proposed approach through some additional insights which are the result of over forty years of personal commitment in the field. Holloway and Grundy's proposed areas of engagement involving the products, the recipients, the donors and the governance of the systems binding these together is widened through an examination of additional technological factors that have shaped the field. These factors include the influence of the medical industry, the role of patient groups, the continuing controversy on the sourcing of plasma raw material, and the roles of different governance models. Converging these factors with Holloway and Grundy's proposed program should enhance its capacity to develop a framework for understanding the dynamics within this complex and unique sector. The concepts developed in both articles will assist stakeholders to develop a societal framework for the provision of these essential medicines.</p>","PeriodicalId":73479,"journal":{"name":"International journal of social determinants of health and health services","volume":" ","pages":"88-91"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11583512/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141977361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Austin Henderson, Richard F MacLehose, Spero M Manson, Dedra Buchwald
{"title":"Social Determinants of Health, Tribal Payments, and Probability of Contracting COVID-19 in American Indian and Alaska Native Peoples.","authors":"Austin Henderson, Richard F MacLehose, Spero M Manson, Dedra Buchwald","doi":"10.1177/27551938241277130","DOIUrl":"10.1177/27551938241277130","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Little is known about the relationships between demographic and economic social determinants of health and the probability of contracting COVID-19 in American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) peoples. In addition, we do not know if and how tribal payments, unique to AI/AN peoples, are associated with the probability of contracting COVID-19. We surveyed 767 AI/AN patients of five geographically disparate health organizations that primarily served AI/AN peoples in urban settings between January and May of 2021. We used univariate modified Poisson regressions to estimate the influence of age, gender, household composition, education, household income, and tribal payments on risk of contracting COVID-19, with results presented as both risk and risk difference. Fifteen percent of the sample contracted COVID-19, and individuals who lived in households with two or more generations had an 11-percentage point elevated risk of contracting COVID-19 compared to those who lived alone. Twenty-seven percent of participants received tribal payments; receipt was associated with seven percentage points (change from 18% probability to 11% probability) lower risk of contracting COVID-19. Our findings showed interventions specifically designed to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in multigenerational households, and regular tribal payments may help improve health outcomes in urban AI/AN populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":73479,"journal":{"name":"International journal of social determinants of health and health services","volume":" ","pages":"46-54"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142001494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Advancing Equity in Health Care Among Dalits and Tribal People in India: The Progress, Current Realities, and the Way Forward.","authors":"Vijesh Sreedhar Kuttiatt, Arya Rahul, Anoop Choolayil, Ashwani Kumar","doi":"10.1177/27551938241268179","DOIUrl":"10.1177/27551938241268179","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The caste system and resulting social exclusion are important social determinants of health inequity in India. This article critically analyzes the influence of the caste system on health inequity in India, starting with a historical perspective and moving to the current status. The article argues that the caste system has deprived Dalits and tribal people in India of achieving health equity. The programs to promote health are often disease-specific and not culturally informed, leading to poor attention at the policy level to the intersecting disadvantages that make Dalits and tribal communities vulnerable, resulting in poor health. The authors suggest strengthening and promoting primary care, improving health access for Dalit and tribal populations, and the need for pivotal changes in the medical education system, shifting the emphasis from specialized care to training family physicians to be oriented toward community health needs, keeping health equity in perspective.</p>","PeriodicalId":73479,"journal":{"name":"International journal of social determinants of health and health services","volume":" ","pages":"33-45"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141899102","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Global Health Indicators and Child Mortality Trends: Insights from a Global Panel Data Analysis of 200 Countries.","authors":"Myung-Bae Park, Young-Joo Won","doi":"10.1177/27551938241284250","DOIUrl":"10.1177/27551938241284250","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The aim of this study was to explore how medical resources and vaccine coverage relate to infant mortality rate (IMR) and under-five mortality rate (U-5MR), which are both key national health indicators. This longitudinal study was based on panel data from the national level of 200 countries. Data from 1990 to 2021 were grouped into seven regions based on geographic and epidemiological similarities. Regarding correlation, the high-income region showed a different trend from that shown by other regions. Health expenditure was positively associated with IMR and U-5MR globally. Number of medical doctors per 1,000 people was negatively associated with IMR and U-5MR globally. Hepatitis type B (HBV) and measles, first dose (MCV) were negatively associated with IMR and HBV, MCV, and Bacillus Calmette-Guérin were negatively associated with U-5MR globally. In quadratic regression, the correlation between the number of doctors and mortality stabilizes or plateaus at approximately four individuals. Overall vaccine coverage was positively correlated with mortality up to a certain threshold, beyond which it became negatively correlated. A higher number of doctors was consistently associated with decreased mortality, regardless of location, while other factors varied by region. Our study findings highlight the importance of implementing global strategies that are specific to each region's characteristics to reduce IMR and U-5MR.</p>","PeriodicalId":73479,"journal":{"name":"International journal of social determinants of health and health services","volume":" ","pages":"92-106"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142333880","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Adam Gaffney, Danny McCormick, Gracie Himmelstein, Steffie Woolhandler, David U Himmelstein
{"title":"Demand and Supply Drivers of Medicare and Non-Medicare Health Spending: An Analysis of U.S. States, 1991-2019.","authors":"Adam Gaffney, Danny McCormick, Gracie Himmelstein, Steffie Woolhandler, David U Himmelstein","doi":"10.1177/27551938241258399","DOIUrl":"10.1177/27551938241258399","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>For the last four decades, policymakers have attempted to control the United States's high health care costs by reducing patients' <i>demand</i> for care (e.g., by imposing managed-care restrictions or high costs on patients at the time of use). Yet studies based mostly on data from the public Medicare program, which covers mostly elderly Americans, suggest that <i>supply</i> (e.g., number of physicians or hospital beds) rather than demand drives aggregate service use and, hence, costs. Using variation between U.S. states in per enrollee Medicare spending versus per capita spending of all other (non-Medicare) individuals, we find that greater supply boosts costs for the entire population. Furthermore, we find that factors that suppress demand in the non-Medicare population do reduce non-Medicare health care spending, but simultaneously increase Medicare spending. This suggests that for a given supply of medical resources, suppressing demand for one group of patients may produce a compensatory increase in provision of care to those whose demand has not been suppressed. Health planning to assure adequate medical resources where they are needed while preventing excess supply where it is duplicative and wasteful is likely a more effective cost control strategy than the imposition of managed-care restrictions or imposing higher costs onto patients seeking care.</p>","PeriodicalId":73479,"journal":{"name":"International journal of social determinants of health and health services","volume":" ","pages":"55-63"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141763036","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pharmaceutical Industry Payments to Patient Organizations in Poland: Analysis of the Patterns, Evolution, and Structure of Connections.","authors":"Marta Makowska, Shai Mulinari, Piotr Ozieranski","doi":"10.1177/27551938241305995","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/27551938241305995","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Drug company funding can create conflicts of interest that compromise the integrity of patient organizations, a problem studied primarily in Western Europe and North America. To address this research gap, we conducted a case study in Poland, a Central European country. Between 2012 and 2020, 33 companies reported payments worth €13 729 644 to 273 patient organizations in Poland. The funding was highly concentrated, with the top ten recipients amassing 46.2 percent of the total amount. Cancer patient organizations were the primary recipients, receiving 37.5 percent. The funding focused on patient organizations' educational activities, constituting 40.4 percent of the total. For the ten companies reporting payments consistently from 2012 to 2020, we detected an increase in both the value of individual payments and the overall value of the funding. Additionally, some patient organizations formed exclusive, or nearly exclusive, ties with single companies. Overall, our study reveals important similarities between Poland and Western countries in the reported distribution of drug company payments to patient organizations. It also highlights priority areas for further research, including the evolution and structure of the financial connections.</p>","PeriodicalId":73479,"journal":{"name":"International journal of social determinants of health and health services","volume":" ","pages":"27551938241305995"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142900913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Welington Serra Lazarini, Francis Sodré, Carlos Eduardo Siqueira
{"title":"Health Policies Within the Poverty Agendas of the Lula Da Silva and Rousseff Administrations: The Influence of the World Bank.","authors":"Welington Serra Lazarini, Francis Sodré, Carlos Eduardo Siqueira","doi":"10.1177/27551938241291715","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/27551938241291715","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The anti-poverty agenda has been at the heart of the World Bank's discourse in recent decades. Social policies started to be identified as strategic for combating poverty and promoting development in poor countries. We analyzed the health policy recommendations made by the World Bank to Brazil in the Lula da Silva and Rousseff administrations from 2003 to 2014. Document analysis was used to explore the partnership contracts between the World Bank and Brazil, projects financed by the World Bank in Brazil, and the document \"20 Years of Construction of the Health System in Brazil: An Analysis of the Unified Health System.\" Content analysis of documents show that there was a predominance of projects focusing on reducing poverty, while social policies occupied a secondary place in the agenda. The World Bank approached states and municipalities expanding the spread of its state reform agenda, in addition to reinterpreting the structural framework of the <i>Sistema Único de Saúde</i> (SUS). We conclude that the Bank acted to limit the original principles of the SUS in favor of hegemonic interests of the current phase of capitalist accumulation.</p>","PeriodicalId":73479,"journal":{"name":"International journal of social determinants of health and health services","volume":" ","pages":"27551938241291715"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142712034","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Supplementary Private Health Insurance and Household Debt, Health Care Utilization, and Medical Spending Following A Health Shock.","authors":"Sooyeol Park, Kanghee Kim, Kevin Callison","doi":"10.1177/27551938241293382","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/27551938241293382","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article aims to evaluate the effect of enrolling in supplementary private health insurance on household debt, medical spending, and medical service use among South Koreans experiencing a health shock. Using data from the Korean Welfare Panel Study from 2009 through 2017, we compared household debt and health service use for those with and without private supplemental health insurance after experiencing a health shock. We found no significant differences in household debt or the financial burden of a health shock between those with and without supplemental health insurance coverage following a shock. Households with supplemental coverage used more medical services compared to households without supplementary coverage and incurred additional medical expenses.</p>","PeriodicalId":73479,"journal":{"name":"International journal of social determinants of health and health services","volume":" ","pages":"27551938241293382"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142549349","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rebeka Balogh, Deborah De Moortel, Sylvie Gadeyne, Julie Vanderleyden, Chris Warhurst, Christophe Vanroelen
{"title":"Is it the Past or the Present? Employment Quality, Unemployment History, Psychological Distress and Mental Wellbeing in the United Kingdom.","authors":"Rebeka Balogh, Deborah De Moortel, Sylvie Gadeyne, Julie Vanderleyden, Chris Warhurst, Christophe Vanroelen","doi":"10.1177/27551938241288788","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/27551938241288788","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Low employment quality and precarious employment have been associated with adverse mental health outcomes, yet the extent to which this association may be explained by the experience of unemployment \"scarring\" has not yet been explored. From a life course perspective, understanding this possible confounding is necessary. Drawing on the United Kingdom's Understanding Society dataset and using latent class analysis, we derived a typology of employment quality across six dimensions and assessed the links between individuals' employment quality, unemployment history, and mental well-being and psychological distress. Our results show that precarious types of employment as well as a higher quality \"protected part-time\" were linked to low mental well-being, though important gender differences were noted. Accounting for past unemployment did not fully explain these associations. No such adverse associations were observed for increased psychological distress. Our results help further the understanding of employment quality as a social determinant of health and highlight the need for both life course and gender-sensitive research in this area.</p>","PeriodicalId":73479,"journal":{"name":"International journal of social determinants of health and health services","volume":" ","pages":"27551938241288788"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142482375","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}