[The many challenges of population health and healthcare in Suriname since 1975].

Suriname inherited a weak colonial health system after political independence in 1975. In the decades that followed, political and economic developments have had an undeniable influence on the health situation and healthcare in Suriname, as well as on the (feasibility of the implementation of) plans to reform the healthcare system. The Surinamese health outcomes are not only particularly unfavorable compared to the Netherlands, but also compared to other states in the Caribbean region.

Contribution of amenable mortality to life expectancy differences between the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba and Curaçao and the Netherlands.

Objective: To identify specific health care areas whose optimization could improve population health in the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba and Curaçao.

Methods: Comparative observational study using mortality and population data of the Dutch Caribbean islands and the Netherlands. Mortality trends were calculated, then analyzed with Joinpoint software, for the period 1988-2014.

Differences in life expectancy between four Western countries and their Caribbean dependencies, 1980-2014.

Background: In the Caribbean, life expectancy in politically independent territories has increasingly diverged from that of territories that remained affiliated to their former colonizers. Because these affiliated territories differ in degree of political independence, they are not all governed in the same way. We assessed whether differences in life expectancy trends between Caribbean dependencies and their Western administrators were related to their degree of political independence, and which causes of death contributed to divergence or convergence in life expectancy.

Health Policy Performance in 16 Caribbean States, 2010-2015.

Objectives: To determine whether Caribbean states vary in health policy performance in 11 different areas; to explore the association with sociodemographic, economical, and governance determinants; and to estimate the potential health gains of "best-practice" health policies.

Methods: We selected 50 indicators that included data on mortality (latest available, 2010-2015), intermediate outcomes, and policy implementation to calculate a state's health policy performance score. We related this score to country characteristics and calculated the potential number of avoidable deaths if the age-specific mortality rates of best-performer Martinique applied in all states.

The health of Antillean migrants in the Netherlands: a comparison with the health of non-migrants in both the countries of origin and destination.

Background: This article examines risk factor and health differences between Antillean migrants in the Netherlands and Antillean and Dutch non-migrants, and relates these findings to four commonly used explanations for migrant health disparities.

Methods: Nationally representative data from the 2012 Dutch Public Health Monitor and the 2013 National Health Survey Curaçao was used. The weighted rates were calculated and significance assessed using the χ2 test.

Decolonization and life expectancy in the Caribbean.

Decolonization has brought political independence to half the Caribbean states in the last half of the 20th century, while the other states remain affiliated. Previous studies suggested a beneficial impact of affiliated status on population health, which may be mediated by more favorable economic development. We assessed how disparities in life expectancy between currently sovereign and affiliated states developed over time, whether decolonization coincided with changes in life expectancy, and whether decolonization coincided with similar changes in GDP per capita.

Epilepsy in Dcx knockout mice associated with discrete lamination defects and enhanced excitability in the hippocampus.

Patients with Doublecortin (DCX) mutations have severe cortical malformations associated with mental retardation and epilepsy. Dcx knockout (KO) mice show no major isocortical abnormalities, but have discrete hippocampal defects. We questioned the functional consequences of these defects and report here that Dcx KO mice are hyperactive and exhibit spontaneous convulsive seizures.