Efficiency evaluation of public hospitals in Saudi Arabia: an application of data envelopment analysis.

Objective: In this study, we assess the performance of public hospitals in Saudi Arabia. We detect the sources of inefficiency and estimate the optimal levels of the resources that provide the current level of health services. We enrich our analysis by employing locations and capacities of the hospitals.

Mobile phone text-messaging interventions aimed to prevent cardiovascular diseases (Text2PreventCVD): systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis.

Background: A variety of small mobile phone text-messaging interventions have indicated improvement in risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Yet the extent of this improvement and whether it impacts multiple risk factors together is uncertain. We aimed to conduct a systematic review and individual patient data (IPD) meta-analysis to investigate the effects of text-messaging interventions for CVD prevention.

Trends in malaria prevalence and health related socioeconomic inequality in rural western Kenya: results from repeated household malaria cross-sectional surveys from 2006 to 2013.

Objective: The objective of this analysis was to examine trends in malaria parasite prevalence and related socioeconomic inequalities in malaria indicators from 2006 to 2013 during a period of intensification of malaria control interventions in Siaya County, western Kenya.

Methods: Data were analysed from eight independent annual cross-sectional surveys from a combined sample of 19 315 individuals selected from 7253 households. Study setting was a health and demographic surveillance area of western Kenya.

AMBIsome Therapy Induction OptimisatioN (AMBITION): High dose AmBisome for cryptococcal meningitis induction therapy in sub-Saharan Africa: economic evaluation protocol for a randomised controlled trial-based equivalence study.

Introduction: Cryptococcal meningitis is responsible for around 15% of all HIV-related deaths globally. Conventional treatment courses with amphotericin B require prolonged hospitalisation and are associated with multiple toxicities and poor outcomes. A phase II study has shown that a single high dose of liposomal amphotericin may be comparable to standard treatment.

Equity and efficiency in the scaled-up implementation of integrated neglected tropical disease control: the health economics protocol of the COUNTDOWN multicountry observational study in Ghana, Cameroon and Liberia.

Introduction: Worldwide, millions of individuals are affected by neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). They are frequently the poorest and most marginalised members of society. Their living conditions, among other things, make them susceptible to such diseases.

Distribution of chronic disease mortality and deterioration in household socioeconomic status in rural Bangladesh: an analysis over a 24-year period.

Background: Little is known about long-term changes linking chronic diseases and poverty in low-income countries such as Bangladesh. This study examines how chronic disease mortality rates change across socioeconomic groups over time in Bangladesh, and whether such mortality is associated with households falling into poverty.

Methods: Age-sex standardized chronic diseases mortality rates were estimated across socioeconomic groups in 1982, 1996 and 2005, using data from the health and demographic surveillance system in Matlab, Bangladesh.

Awareness and control of hypertension in Bangladesh: follow-up of a hypertensive cohort.

Objectives: To assess the effect of awareness and advice to seek care on blood pressure (BP) control among patients with hypertension in Bangladesh.

Design: Longitudinal study.

Setting: The study was carried out in icddr,b surveillance sites at rural Matlab in Chandpur district and semi-urban Kamalapur in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Mental disorders in Bangladesh: a systematic review.

Background: Mental disorders constitute a major public health problem globally with higher burden in low and middle-income countries. In Bangladesh, systematically-collected data on mental disorders are scarce and this leaves the extent of the problem not so well defined. We reviewed the literature on mental health disorders in Bangladesh to summarize the available data and identify evidence gaps.

Cost-effectiveness of prevention and treatment of the diabetic foot: a Markov analysis.

Objective: To estimate the lifetime health and economic effects of optimal prevention and treatment of the diabetic foot according to international standards and to determine the cost-effectiveness of these interventions in the Netherlands.

Research Design And Methods: A risk-based Markov model was developed to simulate the onset and progression of diabetic foot disease in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes managed with care according to guidelines for their lifetime. Mean survival time, quality of life, foot complications, and costs were the outcome measures assessed.