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1 – 10 of 29The purpose of this viewpoint is to discuss and analyze three major governance tools that have been implemented in the United States to target tobacco smoking as a major public…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this viewpoint is to discuss and analyze three major governance tools that have been implemented in the United States to target tobacco smoking as a major public health concern.
Design/methodology/approach
The author highlights the negative consequences of smoking as a global and U.S public health concern and discusses three categories of governance tools implemented in the U.S. Additionally, emerging challenges in the U.S. and different sides of story in developing countries are underscored.
Findings
Although some success has been reached in controlling smoking-related mortalities and morbidities in the U.S. and most of the countries, long-term and sustainable improvement require active surveillance and constant implementation of evidence-based policies and programs.
Practical implications
This viewpoint discusses the governance tools that can be implemented to decrease smoking-related preventable mortalities and morbidities. Similar tools with some tuning can be used to target smoking in other nations. Additionally, these tools can be modified to target other public health-related wicked problems such as obesity, alcohol consumption, and traffic accidents.
Originality/value
This viewpoint highlights the magnitude of smoking as a major public health concern and underscores the necessity of using governance tools in targeting this issue. Additionally, it provides application examples from the United States implementable in other countries with some contextual justifications and tuning.
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The purpose of the IJHG review is to present an overview of the content of papers included in the current issue.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the IJHG review is to present an overview of the content of papers included in the current issue.
Design/methodology/approach
NA.
Findings
NA.
Practical implications
The practical implications are that readers will be able to gain an overview of the current content and thus select areas of most interest to themselves.
Originality/value
The originality of the IJHG Review is that no other journal in the Emerald suite provides a review of this type.
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Richard A.E. North, Jim P. Duguid and Michael A. Sheard
Describes a study to measure the quality of service provided by food‐poisoning surveillance agencies in England and Wales in terms of the requirements of a representative consumer…
Abstract
Describes a study to measure the quality of service provided by food‐poisoning surveillance agencies in England and Wales in terms of the requirements of a representative consumer ‐ the egg producing industry ‐ adopting “egg associated” outbreak investigation reports as the reference output. Defines and makes use of four primary performance indicators: accessibility of information; completeness of evidence supplied in food‐poisoning outbreak investigation reports as to the sources of infection in “egg‐associated” outbreaks; timeliness of information published; and utility of information and advice aimed at preventing or controlling food poisoning. Finds that quality expectations in each parameter measured are not met. Examines reasons why surveillance agencies have not delivered the quality demanded. Makes use of detailed case studies to illustrate inadequacies of current practice. Attributes failure to deliver “accessibility” to a lack of recognition on the status or nature of “consumers”, combined with a self‐maintenance motivation of the part of the surveillance agencies. Finds that failures to deliver “completeness” and “utility” may result from the same defects which give rise to the lack of “accessibility” in that, failing to recognize the consumers of a public service for what they are, the agencies feel no need to provide them with the data they require. The research indicates that self‐maintenance by scientific epidemiologists may introduce biases which when combined with a politically inspired need to transfer responsibility for food‐poisoning outbreaks, skew the conduct of investigations and their conclusions. Contends that this is compounded by serious and multiple inadequacies in the conduct of investigations, arising at least in part from the lack of training and relative inexperience of investigators, the whole conditioned by interdisciplinary rivalry between the professional groups staffing the different agencies. Finds that in addition failures to exploit or develop epidemiological technologies has affected the ability of investigators to resolve the uncertainties identified. Makes recommendations directed at improving the performance of the surveillance agencies which, if adopted will substantially enhance food poisoning control efforts.
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Amanda Masters and David Birnbaum
This paper aims to describe the initial experiences in a new option of an established fellowship program, which can serve as a model that strengthens the next generation of our…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe the initial experiences in a new option of an established fellowship program, which can serve as a model that strengthens the next generation of our workforce for preventing healthcare‐associated infections.
Design/methodology/approach
Historical narrative.
Findings
The CSTE Applied Epidemiology Fellowship has a long history of success in producing future leaders for the public health workforce. As it expands into a healthcare‐associated infections option, it is addressing an area new to traditional public health departments. However, this also is an area where public health must be viewed as part of the continuum of healthcare systems, where tomorrow's professionals must be credible in a number of settings (health departments, hospitals, clinics and extended care facilities).
Practical implications
CSTE's first class of HAI Fellows offers a new model for producing the type of professionals necessary for the field of hospital epidemiology and infection control to achieve its full potential.
Originality/value
This is the first published description of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists new Applied Epidemiology Fellowship “HAI” graduating class.
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This paper aims to find in-depth information related the activities of “clean and healthy behavior” in household regulations, starting from assessment, planning, mobilization…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to find in-depth information related the activities of “clean and healthy behavior” in household regulations, starting from assessment, planning, mobilization, implementation monitoring and assessment.
Design/methodology/approach
Data analysis was used for quantitative and qualitative approaches (mixing method). The qualitative approach was used to understand the individual phenomena in terms of finding, obtaining and describing the community behavior, which is related to health problems. The data obtained through the approach were then analyzed using interactive model.
Findings
In principle, this research exactly determines the responses of officers and the community to the process of “clean and healthy living behavior” activities. In general, the health facility used first is self-treatment, before seeking medical treatment or non-drug treatment. It proves that humans are always experimenting. From the research result, there are respondents who do not use medical treatment at 16 per cent; and the remaining 84 per cent are using medical treatment, despite being preceded by self-treatment (S) and non-medical treatment (N).
Originality/value
Currently, there have not been many studies related to the implementation of clean and healthy behavior although the information about it is very important to know. The managers of the “clean and healthy behavior” program need to know such information.
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Over the years we have reported prosecutions where the defence has alleged, and with circumstantial support that the presence of a harmful foreign body in food was deliberate…
Abstract
Over the years we have reported prosecutions where the defence has alleged, and with circumstantial support that the presence of a harmful foreign body in food was deliberate through the action of a single disgruntled employee or where the labour relations climate generally has been bad. It makes no difference to the manufacturer's responsibility—the offence is an absolute one—but occasionally courts have allowed it in mitigation. Sometimes, it has been the nature of the extraneous material, e.g. fragments of glass or metal, the like of which did not exist in the factory premises or plant. This may be taken as a symptom of the vandalism of the age, but more recently, two incidents have drawn attention to its dangers and provided a glimpse of the criminal mind which can inflict such injury on employers, and expose innocent consumers, of all ages, to possible harm.
Juan Smart and Alejandra Letelier
The purpose of this paper is to do a systematic assessment and testing of identified human rights norms alongside social determinant approaches in relation to identified health…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to do a systematic assessment and testing of identified human rights norms alongside social determinant approaches in relation to identified health issues of concern in four Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay) to show how social determinants and human rights frameworks improve population health.
Design/methodology/approach
To do so, in the first part the authors analyze the inequalities both between and within each of the selected countries in terms of health status and health determinants of the population. Then, in the second section, the authors analyze the level of recognition, institutionalisation and accountability of the right to health in each country.
Findings
From the data used in this paper it is possible to conclude that the four analysed countries have improved their results in terms of health status, health care and health behaviours. This improvement coincides with the recognition, institutionalisation and creation of accountability mechanisms of human rights principles and standards in terms of health and that a human rights approach to health and its relation with other social determinants have extended universal health coverage and health systems in the four analysed countries.
Originality/value
Despite of the importance of the relation between human rights and social determinants of health, there are few human right scholars working on the issues of social determinants of health and human rights. Most of the literature of health and human rights has been focussed specific relations between specific rights and the right to health, but less human right scholar working on social determinants of health. On the other hand, just a few epidemiologists and people working on social medicine have actually started to use a universal human rights frame and discourse. In fact, according to Vnkatapuram, Bell and Marmot: “while health and human rights advocates have from the start taken a global perspective, social medicine and social epidemiology have been slower to catch up”.
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Sarah Curtis and Anne‐Cecile Hoyez
This review arises from a series of multidisciplinary Franco‐British workshops which were supported by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Agence…
Abstract
This review arises from a series of multidisciplinary Franco‐British workshops which were supported by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR). More than 30 participants from a range of institutions and agencies were involved in compiling the material in this review (Appendix I). The workshops offered an opportunity to exchange ideas from research on the relationships between migration, health and well‐being in Britain and France. In the following discussion we compare and contrast experiences in the two countries, with the aim of assessing the importance of international, national and local contexts, in their various cultural, social and political dimensions, for the relationships of interest. Drawing on these ideas, we suggest the definition of a future international research agenda.
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This is the age of research. What was once a highly selective privilege in just a few professions that could be counted on one's fingers has since the last war become a feature of…
Abstract
This is the age of research. What was once a highly selective privilege in just a few professions that could be counted on one's fingers has since the last war become a feature of every conceivable branch of science and trade, to which millions in money are devoted. The connection often seems remote, if not a little spurious. Perhaps it may be due to the enormous emphasis on the teaching of science and technology in recent years, but we see what Sir William Dale calls “these turnspits of modern science” ready to undertake, and various official bodies to finance by grants, research into almost anything. The amount spent, for example, on cancer research through the years and all over the world, which incidentally has produced very little in the way of real advancement towards a cure, must be phenomenal, but it is now probably dwarfed by the colossal sums available for trade and market research. We even see research by opposing groups, one endeavouring to prove, the other to refute some particular hypothesis. Much of it appears to lack realism or to be of any great practical value and at too high a theoretical level, including masses of statistics, without which the younger generation of scientists appears to think research valueless, if not impossible.
David Dunne, Amanda Geppert and Carol Ann Courneya
Physicians' uniquely privileged social status gives them influence to help prevent conflict in addition to treating its victims. Yet the peacebuilding role of physicians has…
Abstract
Purpose
Physicians' uniquely privileged social status gives them influence to help prevent conflict in addition to treating its victims. Yet the peacebuilding role of physicians has received little attention in medical education. In this paper, the authors tackle both and provide some concrete guidance to medical schools interested in taking it on.
Design/methodology/approach
Using Qualitative Description, a review of literature and expert interviews in violence prevention, peacebuilding, medicine and medical education, three statements are posited: improved healthcare may enhance the prospects for peace; there are mechanisms by which healthcare may potentially enhance peacebuilding; and medical education can be designed to support these mechanisms. A “peace audit” is developed against which to evaluate the efforts of medical schools towards peacebuilding. This audit is used to assess a medical school in Nepal that is invested in peacebuilding.
Findings
Medicine has a role, both in resolving conflict, and in preventing its occurrence. The experts believe that physicians have a responsibility to go further than treating the wounded and address the root cause of conflict: the structural violence of poverty and economic disparity.
Originality/value
This paper considers the mechanisms by which medicine supports peacebuilding, and the consequences of this for medical education. The literature to date has not dealt with this issue.
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