Assessment of cognitive function among adults aged ≥ 60 years using the Revised Hasegawa Dementia Scale: cross-sectional study, Lao People's Democratic Republic.

Background: Rapid population ageing remains an important concern for health, social and economics systems; thus, a broader assessment of cognitive decline among adults aged ≥ 60 years is essential. It is important to regularly collect reliable data through validated and affordable methods from people living in different areas and in different circumstances to better understand the significance of this health problem. This study aimed to identify the prevalence of cognitive impairment and the related risk factors by reassessing the scoring of the Revised Hasegawa Dementia Scale among older adults in the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

Financing Comprehensive Immunization Services in Lao PDR: A Fiscal Space Analysis From a Public Policy Perspective.

Introduction: A comprehensive package of immunization services is an internal component of the Essential Health Service Package (ESP) implemented by Government of Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). Thus, the cost of delivering the immunization program and its feasibility given the fiscal space emerges as an important policy question. The present analysis was undertaken to estimate the total cost of implementing the immunization program under ESP, determinants of total cost and the program's fiscal implications from the government's perspective.

Costing of Essential Health Service Packages: A Systematic Review of Methods From Developing Economies.

Objectives: Although an increasing number of countries are adopting essential health service packages (EHSPs) and undertaking their cost assessment, standardization of the costing methods and their reporting are imperative to instill confidence in the use of findings of EHSPs as evidence for decision making and resource allocation. This review was conducted to synthesize the EHSP costing reports, focusing on the key costing methods and their reporting standards.

Methods: A systematic review of English language literature (peer-reviewed as well as gray) was conducted.

Financial protection and equity of access to health services with the free maternal and child health initiative in Lao PDR.

Though Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) has made considerable progress in improving maternal and child health (MCH), significant disparities exist nationwide, with the poor and geographically isolated ethnic groups having limited access to services. In its pursuit of universal health coverage, the government introduced a Free MCH initiative in 2011, which has recently been subsumed within the new National Health Insurance (NHI) programme. Although this was a major national health financing reform, there have been few evaluations of the extent to which it improved equitable access to MCH services.

How should HIV resources be allocated? Lessons learnt from applying Optima HIV in 23 countries.

Introduction: With limited funds available, meeting global health targets requires countries to both mobilize and prioritize their health spending. Within this context, countries have recognized the importance of allocating funds for HIV as efficiently as possible to maximize impact. Over the past six years, the governments of 23 countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America have used the Optima HIV tool to estimate the optimal allocation of HIV resources.

Kazakhstan can achieve ambitious HIV targets despite expected donor withdrawal by combining improved ART procurement mechanisms with allocative and implementation efficiencies.

Background: Despite a non-decreasing HIV epidemic, international donors are soon expected to withdraw funding from Kazakhstan. Here we analyze how allocative, implementation, and technical efficiencies could strengthen the national HIV response under assumptions of future budget levels.

Methodology: We used the Optima model to project future scenarios of the HIV epidemic in Kazakhstan that varied in future antiretroviral treatment unit costs and management expenditure-two areas identified for potential cost-reductions.

In the interests of time: improving HIV allocative efficiency modelling via optimal time-varying allocations.

Introduction: International investment in the response to HIV and AIDS has plateaued and its future level is uncertain. With many countries committed to ending the epidemic, it is essential to allocate available resources efficiently over different response periods to maximize impact. The objective of this study is to propose a technique to determine the optimal allocation of funds over time across a set of HIV programmes to achieve desirable health outcomes.

Reorienting the HIV response in Niger toward sex work interventions: from better evidence to targeted and expanded practice.

Background: Niger's low-burden, sex-work-driven HIV epidemic is situated in a context of high economic and demographic growth. Resource availability of HIV/AIDS has been decreasing recently. In 2007-2012, only 1% of HIV expenditure was for sex work interventions, but an estimated 37% of HIV incidence was directly linked to sex work in 2012.

The economics of effective AIDS treatment in Thailand.

Introduction: The speed with which Thailand has scaled up public provision of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has been unprecedented, with more than 80 000 individuals on treatment at the end of 2006 through Thailand's National Access to Antiretroviral Program for People Living with HIV/AIDS (NAPHA). This paper projects the cost effectiveness, the affordability and the future fiscal burden of NAPHA to the government of Thailand under several different policy scenarios until the year 2025.

Methods: An economic/epidemiological model of access to ART was constructed, and this composite model was calibrated to economic and epidemiological data from Thailand and other countries.