Integrating Health Technologies in Health Services for Syrian Refugees in Lebanon: Qualitative Study.

Background: Lebanon currently hosts around one million Syrian refugees. There has been an increasing interest in integrating eHealth and mHealth technologies into the provision of primary health care to refugees and Lebanese citizens.

Objective: We aimed to gain a deeper understanding of the potential for technology integration in primary health care provision in the context of the protracted Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon.

Women's health and well-being in low-income formal and informal neighbourhoods on the eve of the armed conflict in Aleppo.

Objectives: To explore how married women living in low-income formal and informal neighbourhoods in Aleppo, Syria, perceived the effects of neighbourhood on their health and well-being, and the relevance of these findings to future urban rebuilding policies post-conflict.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with eighteen married women living in informal or socioeconomically disadvantaged formal neighbourhoods in Aleppo in 2011, a year before the armed conflict caused massive destruction in all these neighbourhoods.

Results: Our findings suggest that the experience of neighbourhood social characteristics is even more critical to women's sense of well-being than environmental conditions and physical infrastructure.

Surface water filtration using granular media and membranes: A review.

Significant growth of the human population is expected in the future. Hence, the pressure on the already scarce natural water resources is continuously increasing. This work is an overview of membrane and filtration methods for the removal of pollutants such as bacteria, viruses and heavy metals from surface water.

Contrasting cardiovascular mortality trends in Eastern Mediterranean populations: Contributions from risk factor changes and treatments.

Background: Middle income countries are facing an epidemic of non-communicable diseases, especially coronary heart disease (CHD). We used a validated CHD mortality model (IMPACT) to explain recent trends in Tunisia, Syria, the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) and Turkey.

Methods: Data on populations, mortality, patient numbers, treatments and risk factor trends from national and local surveys in each country were collated over two time points (1995-97; 2006-09); integrated and analysed using the IMPACT model.

Health system challenges for the management of cardiovascular disease and diabetes: an empirical qualitative study from Syria.

Objectives: To explore through empirical qualitative data health system barriers to effective management of cardiovascular disease and diabetes in Syria before the crisis, and how such analysis can inform the building of a post-crisis system.

Methods: Data were collected through document review, semi-structured key informant interviews, and fieldwork in clinics.

Results: Institutional commitment to address the increasing burden of CVD and diabetes in Syria was limited and uncoordinated.

Priority setting for the prevention and control of cardiovascular diseases: multi-criteria decision analysis in four eastern Mediterranean countries.

Objectives: To explore the feasibility of using a simple multi-criteria decision analysis method with policy makers/key stakeholders to prioritize cardiovascular disease (CVD) policies in four Mediterranean countries: Palestine, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey.

Methods: A simple multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) method was piloted. A mixed methods study was used to identify a preliminary list of policy options in each country.

Health system challenges of cardiovascular disease and diabetes in four Eastern Mediterranean countries.

This paper presents evidence from research into health system challenges of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes in four Eastern Mediterranean countries: the occupied Palestinian territory, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey. We address two questions. How has the health system in each country been conceptualised and organised to manage the provision of care for those with CVD or diabetes? And what were key concerns about the institutional ability to address this challenge? Research took place from 2009 to 2010, shortly before the political upheavals in the region, and notably in Syria and Tunisia.

The influence of neighbourhood formality status and socio-economic position on self-rated health among adult men and women: a multilevel, cross sectional, population study from Aleppo, Syria.

Background: There is substantial evidence from high income countries that neighbourhoods have an influence on health independent of individual characteristics. However, neighbourhood characteristics are rarely taken into account in the analysis of urban health studies from developing countries. Informal urban neighbourhoods are home to about half of the population in Aleppo, the second largest city in Syria (population>2.

Use of evidence to support healthy public policy: a policy effectiveness-feasibility loop.

Public policy plays a key role in improving population health and in the control of diseases, including non-communicable diseases. However, an evidence-based approach to formulating healthy public policy has been difficult to implement, partly on account of barriers that hinder integrated work between researchers and policy-makers. This paper describes a "policy effectiveness-feasibility loop" (PEFL) that brings together epidemiological modelling, local situation analysis and option appraisal to foster collaboration between researchers and policy-makers.

Self-rated health and its determinants among adults in Syria: a model from the Middle East.

Background: Self-rated health (SRH) has been widely used to research health inequalities in developed western societies, but few such studies are available in developing countries. Similar to many Arab societies, little research has been conducted in Syria on the health status of its citizens, particularly in regards to SRH. This Study aims to investigate and compare determinants of SRH in adult men and women in Aleppo, Syria.