[FORMATION OF THE NOTION OF «QUALITY OF LIFE», CONCEPTUALISATION AND METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS (LITERATURE REVIEW)].

Quality of life (QoL) is an important health outcome and represents the primary aim of all medical interventions. The term QoL has been is frequently used in medical and philosophical literature in recent decades and has become an important concept and goal of public health research. Traditionally, biomedical results rather than QoL were the basic endpoints in clinical and public health research.

Enhancing global capacity in the surveillance, prevention, and control of chronic diseases: seven themes to consider and build upon.

Background: Chronic diseases are now a major health problem in developing countries as well as in the developed world. Although chronic diseases cannot be communicated from person to person, their risk factors (for example, smoking, inactivity, dietary habits) are readily transferred around the world. With increasing human progress and technological advance, the pandemic of chronic diseases will become an even bigger threat to global health.

Training practitioners in evidence-based chronic disease prevention for global health.

Too often, public health decisions are based on short-term demands rather than long-term research and objectives. Policies and programmes are sometimes developed around anecdotal evidence. The Evidence-Based Public Health (EBPH) programme trains public health practitioners to use a comprehensive, scientific approach when developing and evaluating chronic disease programmes.

Women's reproductive health needs in Russia: what can we learn from an intervention to improve post-abortion care?

It has been well documented that abortion is a common means of controlling fertility in Russia. Women undergo repeat abortions throughout their reproductive lives, but recent studies of abortion trends in the Russian Federation suggest that abortion rates are on the decline, use of modern contraceptives is increasing, and women dislike abortion as a method of fertility control. Using data collected during 1999-2003 in women's health facilities in three Russian cities, this paper reports the results of an evaluation of interventions to improve post-abortion care, which show an impressive increase in post-abortion contraceptive counselling but no reduction in the rate at which women present at clinics for repeat abortions.