The role of civil society organizations in alcohol control during the COVID-19 pandemic across six countries in Africa.

Background: The differing global trends in alcohol consumption and policy measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic warrant a closer look at the actions taken by civil society organisations (CSOs) and community-led efforts to describe how they may influence and accelerate action for change in alcohol control measures. This paper analyses actions undertaken by CSOs at the national and local levels to safeguard communities and improve alcohol control policies during the COVID-19 pandemic in six African countries.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was distributed via email to CSOs involved in alcohol prevention, outreach and policy development in Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

Development of alcohol control law, Sao Tome and Principe.

The World Health Organization (WHO) African Region is struggling with increasing harm associated with alcohol consumption. Legislators of Sao Tome and Principe, concerned about this harm and the high prevalence of alcohol use disorders, designed a comprehensive alcohol control bill to tackle this situation. Input into the design of the bill was obtained through interviews involving many stakeholders.

Describing and mapping scientific articles on alcohol globally for the period 2010-2021: a bibliometric analysis.

Objectives: To describe and map scientific literature related to alcohol consumption, its determinants, governance, harm and control policies by publication output, author affiliations, funding, countries of study and research themes.

Design: Bibliometric analysis using performance analysis and science mapping techniques.

Data Sources: Scientific articles.

Hospitalization for ambulatory care sensitive conditions: What conditions make inter-country comparisons possible?

Hospitalizations for ambulatory care sensitive conditions have been extensively used in health services research to assess access, quality and performance of primary health care. Inter-country comparisons can assist policy-makers in pursuing better health outcomes by contrasting policy design, implementation and evaluation. The objective of this study is to identify the conceptual, methodological, contextual and policy dimensions and factors that need to be accounted for when comparing these types of hospitalizations across countries.

Creating performance intelligence for primary health care strengthening in Europe.

Background: Primary health care and its strengthening through performance measurement is essential for sustainably working towards universal health coverage. Existing performance frameworks and indicators to measure primary health care capture system functions like governance, financing and resourcing but to a lesser extent the function of services delivery and its heterogeneous nature. Moreover, most frameworks have weak links with routine information systems and national health priorities, especially in the context of high- and middle-income countries.

Review of 128 quality of care mechanisms: A framework and mapping for health system stewards.

Health system stewards have the critical task to identify quality of care deficiencies and resolve underlying system limitations. Despite a growing evidence-base on the effectiveness of certain mechanisms for improving quality of care, frameworks to facilitate the oversight function of stewards and the use of mechanisms to improve outcomes remain underdeveloped. This review set out to catalogue a wide range of quality of care mechanisms and evidence on their effectiveness, and to map these in a framework along two dimensions: (i) governance subfunctions; and (ii) targets of quality of care mechanisms.

Improving clinical practice in primary care for the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases: a multi-actor approach to two regional pilot projects in Kazakhstan.

Improving access to quality services is integral to achieving better outcomes for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). In Kazakhstan, like other countries with historically centralized governance models, key to improving quality is instilling a common and shared understanding of the roles and responsibilities in correspondence with the multifaceted nature of quality of care. This review details the experience of two pilot projects implemented in Kazakhstan's regions of Kyzylorda and Mangystau over a three-year period with the aim to improve clinical practice through a multi-actor, multi-intervention approach.

Cross-programmatic consultation on the role of primary care in the responsible use of medicines and the reduction of antimicrobial resistance.

This meeting was held from the 30 October to the 1 November 2018 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The meeting brought together participants from 16 countries of central Asia, Caucasus, eastern Europe and expert speakers from western Europe and India. Participants discussed the analysis and use of data on antimicrobial medicines consumption, country experiences in enforcing legislation for prescription-only access to antibiotics, the role of primary health care (PHC) in tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR), strategies to improving competencies of practitioners using evidence-based clinical protocols and public engagement in the responsible use of medicines.

A review of health governance: definitions, dimensions and tools to govern.

Background: The premise that good governance will ultimately lead to better health outcomes has been central to the proliferation of work in this area over the past decade.

Objective: To consolidate and align literature on governance by presenting an overview of efforts to define, describe and operationalize the health governance function.

Methods: A targeted review of governance literature.

A census-based socio-economic status (SES) index as a tool to examine the relationship between mental health services use and deprivation.

This paper discusses the development and application of a socio-economic status (SES) index, created to explore the relationship between socio-economic variables and psychiatric service use. The study was conducted in a community-based mental health service (CMHS) in Verona, Northern Italy, utilising service use data from 1996. An ecological SES index was constructed through a factor analysis from 1991 Census data, at census block level.

[Socioeconomic inequalities and mental health. II. Methodological aspects and literature review].

Objective: This study provides a framework for mental health inequalities beginners. It describes the methods used to measure socio economic inequalities and the inter-relations with different aspects of mental health: residence, mental health services organisation and main diagnostic categories.

Method: Literature electronic-search on Medline, Psyclit, Econlit, Social Science Index and SocioSearch using and relating the key-words inequalities, deprivation, poverty, socio-economic status, social class, occupational class, mental health for the period 1965-2002 (June).

[Socio-economic inequalities and mental health. I. Concepts, theories, and interpretations].

Aims: Reconstructing the models used for approaching the inequalities issues in health, identifying the most relevant theoretical and conceptual contributions.

Method: Literature electronic-search on Medline, Psyclit, Econlit, Social Science Index and SocioSearch using the key-words inequalities, deprivation, poverty, socio-economic status, social class, occupational class, mental health for the period 1965-2002; integrated with manual search. The material was classified according to the conceptual and theoretical interpretative models or to the analyses of the association 'inequalities-health' where health was expressed as mortality, morbidity or services utilisation.