Missed opportunities for hypertension screening of older people in the Philippines: cross-sectional analysis of nationally representative individual-level data.

Background: Guidelines recommend routine blood pressure measurement at health facilities. We estimated the potential for opportunistic screening for hypertension at health facilities to change the level and distribution of diagnosed hypertension in the older population of the Philippines.

Methods: We used a representative, nationwide sample of Filipinos aged 60 years and older and classified respondents as a) if they had high (≥140/90 mm Hg) blood pressure (BP) or were taking BP medication, b) if told have high BP by a doctor, and c) a if they were hypertensive, undiagnosed and had an outpatient visit to a health facility in the past 12 months.

Risk factor contributions to socioeconomic inequality in cardiovascular risk in the Philippines: a cross-sectional study of nationally representative survey data.

Background: Primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) increasingly relies on monitoring global CVD risk scores. Lack of evidence on socioeconomic inequality in these scores and the contributions that specific risk factors make to this inequality impedes effective targeting of CVD prevention. We aimed to address this evidence gap by measuring and decomposing socioeconomic inequality in CVD risk in the Philippines.

Associations between health-related quality of life and measures of adiposity among Filipino adults.

Objective: Estimate associations between the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and adiposity in a low-income population.

Methods: In a cluster random sample of 3796 Filipinos aged 40-70 years in Nueva Ecija province, we measured body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), and six dimensions of HRQoL using the 20-item Short Form Health Survey. We stratified by sex and used nonparametric regression to graph mean HRQoL in each dimension by BMI, WC, and WHR.

Persistent effects of temporary incentives: Evidence from a nationwide health insurance experiment.

Temporary incentives are offered in anticipation of persistent effects that are seldom estimated. We use a nationwide randomized experiment in the Philippines to estimate effects of two incentives for health insurance three years after their withdrawal. We find that both temporary incentives had persistent effects on enrollment.

Filling Potholes on the Road to Universal Health Coverage in the Philippines.

The fraction of health-care costs financed from prepayment sources is a critical indicator of progress toward Universal Health Coverage. But it does not tell how prepayment varies with the level of health-care costs and between poorer and richer patients. This paper used survey data from the Philippines to estimate inpatient costs paid by the National Health Insurance Program (aka PhilHealth) in 2013-2017 when attempts were made to extend population, service and financial coverage.

Effectiveness of clinic-based cardiovascular disease prevention: A randomized encouragement design experiment in the Philippines.

Rationale: Evidence on effectiveness of routine clinic-based cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention in low- and middle-income countries is lacking. This study aimed to provide evidence on exposure to primary prevention of CVDs obtained through visits to public health clinics in the Philippines that are responsible for operating a widely-adopted CVD risk screening and management protocol.

Method: In a 2018 cluster-randomized experiment in Nueva Ecija province, participants aged 40-70 with no history of CVD in randomly selected communities were offered a money-prize lottery ticket if they visited a public health clinic for a check-up.

Health conditions, payments, proximity, and opportunity costs: Examining delays in seeking inpatient and outpatient care in the Philippines.

Like other developing countries, the Philippines commits to achieving universal health coverage. To identify the factors - including health care needs, financial and physical access, and opportunity costs - associated with delays in seeking outpatient (OP) and inpatient (IP) care among household members with illness, injury or advised by a doctor, this paper estimates Cox and Weibull proportional hazard models using a nationally-representative sample of households surveyed in 2011, when the Philippine government just started implementing major health reforms. Our results indicate that the delays in seeking OP care tend to be shorter for the very young (5 years old or below), the elderly (65 years old or above), and those with prior poor health.

Cooking and coughing: Estimating the effects of clean fuel for cooking on the respiratory health of children in the Philippines.

Household air pollution (HAP) arising from the use of solid fuels for cooking is known to have adverse health effects including acute respiratory infections in children, which remains a major public health concern in developing countries. Hence, various interventions to reduce HAP have been advocated or piloted in many countries. To provide additional evidence on the effectiveness and applicability of the interventions in various settings, we investigate the effects of clean fuel for cooking on the risks of respiratory illness of children below five years old in the Philippines.

Effects of Price, Information, and Transactions Cost Interventions to Raise Voluntary Enrollment in a Social Health Insurance Scheme: A Randomized Experiment in the Philippines.

A cluster randomized experiment was undertaken testing two sets of interventions encouraging enrollment in the Individually Paying Program (IPP), the voluntary component of the Philippines' social health insurance program. In early 2011, 1037 unenrolled IPP-eligible families in 179 randomly selected intervention municipalities were given an information kit and offered a 50% premium subsidy valid until the end of 2011; 383 IPP-eligible families in 64 control municipalities were not. In February 2012, the 787 families in the intervention sites who were still IPP-eligible but had not enrolled had their vouchers extended, were resent the enrollment kits and received SMS reminders.

Do piped water and flush toilets prevent child diarrhea in rural Philippines?

Similar to other developing countries, diarrhea in the Philippines continues to be among the top causes of child mortality and morbidity. In pursuit of its Millennium Development Goals, the Philippine government commits to reduce child deaths and provide water and sanitation services to more rural households by 2015. Applying propensity score matching on the 1993, 1998, 2003, and 2008 rounds of the National Demographic and Health Survey to estimate the average treatment effect on the treated, it is found that the incidence of diarrhea among under-5 children is lower by as much as 4.