Organizing integrated health-care services to meet older people's needs.

In most countries, a fundamental shift in the focus of clinical care for older people is needed. Instead of trying to manage numerous diseases and symptoms in a disjointed fashion, the emphasis should be on interventions that optimize older people's physical and mental capacities over their life course and that enable them to do the things they value. This, in turn, requires a change in the way services are organized: there should be more integration within the health system and between health and social services.

The World report on ageing and health: a policy framework for healthy ageing.

Although populations around the world are rapidly ageing, evidence that increasing longevity is being accompanied by an extended period of good health is scarce. A coherent and focused public health response that spans multiple sectors and stakeholders is urgently needed. To guide this global response, WHO has released the first World report on ageing and health, reviewing current knowledge and gaps and providing a public health framework for action.

Beyond the crisis: building back better mental health care in 10 emergency-affected areas using a longer-term perspective.

Background: Major gaps remain - especially in low- and middle-income countries - in the realization of comprehensive, community-based mental health care. One potentially important yet overlooked opportunity for accelerating mental health reform lies within emergency situations, such as armed conflicts or natural disasters. Despite their adverse impacts on affected populations' mental health and well being, emergencies also draw attention and resources to these issues and provide openings for mental health service development.

Developing the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0.

Objective: To describe the development of the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0) for measuring functioning and disability in accordance with the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health.

Improving the prevention and management of chronic disease in low-income and middle-income countries: a priority for primary health care.

The burden of chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and mental disorders is high in low-income and middle-income countries and is predicted to increase with the ageing of populations, urbanisation, and globalisation of risk factors. Furthermore, HIV/AIDS is increasingly becoming a chronic disorder. An integrated approach to the management of chronic diseases, irrespective of cause, is needed in primary health care.

Preventing cancer through tobacco and infection control: how many lives can we save in the next 10 years?

This paper presents projections for cancer mortality, incidence and burden of disease (as disability adjusted life years) for 2005, 2015 and 2030. The projections are based on the latest available WHO mortality estimates from 2002, updated with mortality data from 107 countries and augmented by region and site-specific cancer survival models. Cancer accounted for an estimated 7.

Preventing chronic diseases: taking stepwise action.

The scientific knowledge to achieve a new global goal for the prevention of chronic diseases--a 2% yearly reduction in rates of death from chronic disease over and above projected declines during the next 10 years--already exists. However, many low-income and middle-income countries must deal with the practical realities of limited resources and a double burden of infectious and chronic diseases. This paper presents a novel planning framework that can be used in these contexts: the stepwise framework for preventing chronic diseases.

Integrated approaches to prevention and control of chronic conditions.

Integrated approaches to prevention and control of chronic conditions. Chronic conditions currently account for more than 50% of the global disease burden, and this figure is projected to continue to rise. Yet, around the world, health care systems are not organized to provide effective and efficient care for chronic health problems.

Preparing the 21st century global healthcare workforce.

To meet the growing global demands of caring for the increasing numbers of patients with chronic conditions, we need to develop a new approach to training

Research to practice: international dissemination of evidence-based behavioral medicine.

Background: In recent years, there has been a dramatic rise in the global prevalence of chronic conditions. Cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases chronic lung disorders, and their common behavioral risk factors are escalating rapidly in developing countries, many of which are still struggling with infectious diseases and poor health system infrastructures.

Purpose: This article examines the role that behavioral medicine can play to improve global health.

The World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control: implications for global epidemics of food-related deaths and disease.

This paper reviews the major elements of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and considers those that can be applied to diet and nutrition. Tobacco and food policy have important differences: the two commodities have distinctly different health impacts, and food companies may be more responsive to public concerns than the tobacco industry. Nevertheless, both food and tobacco policy address public health issues surrounding legal products.

One-year follow-up of first onset low back pain.

Efforts to examine the process and risk of developing chronic back pain have relied generally upon retrospective study of individuals with already established pain. In an alternative approach to understanding the clinical course and evolution of low back disorders, a cohort of 76 men experiencing their first episode of back pain was assessed prospectively at 2, 6 and 12 months following pain onset. Standard measures of pain (Descriptor Differential Scale: DDS), disability (Sickness Impact Profile: SIP), and distress (Beck Depression Inventory: BDI) were employed to classify the sample into five groups: Resolved, Pain Only, Disability/Distress Only, Pain and Mild Disability/Distress, and Clinical Range.