Factors influencing health care utilisation among Aboriginal cardiac patients in central Australia: a qualitative study.

Background: Aboriginal Australians suffer from poorer overall health compared to the general Australian population, particularly in terms of cardiovascular disease and prognosis following a cardiac event. Despite such disparities, Aboriginal Australians utilise health care services at much lower rates than the general population. Improving health care utilisation (HCU) among Aboriginal cardiac patients requires a better understanding of the factors that constrain or facilitate use.

Female sex workers in China: vectors of disease?

Objective: To analyze the extent by which Chinese female sex workers (FSWs) serve as vectors of HIV/AIDS to an otherwise spared general population and to describe the implications of centering efforts solely on this high-risk group.

Goal: By using the example of FSWs in China, we intend to demonstrate the role that structural factors can have on HIV transmission above and beyond individual high-risk behaviors.

Study Design: Literature review of years 1980-2006.