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This article aims to relate investments in human capital to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), and examine the spending levels necessary to achieve high performance in related SDG sectors for Azerbaijan.

Employing data from the World Bank, the empirical approach undertaken in this study relies on peer analysis by examining spending levels for nations exhibiting similar income levels and geographical proximity to Azerbaijan.

This study estimates that total spending in education would need to increase by 0.4 percentage points of GDP by 2030, while total spending in health would need to increase by 5.9 percentage points of GDP by 2030 for Azerbaijan.

This study contributes to the literature by conducting an empirical analysis in which other nations can emulate in measuring their relative progress on human capital investments and related UN SDGs.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-02-2023-0137

The migration of physicians is a global interest, causing imbalances between developed and developing countries. Romania is one of Europe's major providers of physicians, not because there is a surplus, but because physicians are drawn to places with better living and working conditions. Medicine in Romania is increasingly highly advanced, and Romanian physicians are well appreciated all over the world. Despite being one of the countries with the most medical graduates in the world, Romania is suffering a doctor exodus. After joining the EU, the problem of physician migration became widespread, resulting in a deficient and inefficient healthcare system. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to estimate the losses registered by Romania because of physicians' decision to migrate.

These losses were calculated in two ways: utilizing the statistical life value and the amount of money invested in training a medical graduate.

According to the findings, the losses in 2018 were 104.16 million euros, approximately 0.12% of GDP.

The originality of this paper consists in data, being provided by the College of Physicians from Romania and the method used, this study being the only one that estimates the cost of Romanian physicians' migration. The paper adds to existing knowledge an empirical results regarding quantifying the value reflecting the departure of physicians, using value of statistical life and the amount of money invested in preparing a medical graduate.

To effectively combat the increasing rates of obesity, it is crucial to explore how environmental factors like sidewalk access impact weight-related outcomes. This study aimed to systematically examine the association between sidewalk accessibility and weight-related outcomes.

Databases were searched by keywords for relevant articles, which were published before March 3, 2024, to report the role of neighborhood sidewalk access on weight-related outcomes. The main findings of the selected articles were extracted from eligible studies by two independent reviewers.

A total of 20 out of 33 studies indicated a significant negative relationship between access to sidewalks and weight-related outcomes. Three studies demonstrated an indirect relationship between access to sidewalks and weight-related outcomes by greater access to physical environments. In addition, five studies reported no clear relationship, and three studies reported a significantly positive relationship between access to sidewalks and weight-related outcomes.

In general, people who live in urban areas with better sidewalk access benefit from better weight-related outcomes. Adults showed this correlation more prominently than adolescents and children. Therefore, sidewalks that have a positive effect on physical activity levels could be considered as a preventive measure against obesity.

One of the weight-related outcomes is obesity. Every community faces numerous challenges due to obesity, which adversely affects the quality of life and health. Environmental factors such as access to sidewalks could be associated with body weight due to lifestyle influences.

Mainland Tanzania has seen two decades of significant social policy reforms and transformations in its social and economic structures, whilst the country continues to grapple with persisting gender inequalities. This article examines Tanzania's social policy developments from a gender perspective. The authors analyse the level, reach and quality of social policy delivery to working-age women across the areas of health policy, social protection and employment policy during 2000–2021.

The article draws on qualitative research deploying the scoping review method. The data consist of diverse secondary materials, including academic publications, government policy documents, relevant statistics and other types of “grey” literature.

Tanzania has made significant advancements in the legal frameworks around welfare provision and has instituted increasingly gender-responsive government policy plans. The health and social protection sectors, in particular, have witnessed the introduction of large-scale measures expanding social policy implementation. However, social policy delivery remains two-tiered, with differences in provisions for women in the formal and informal sectors.

Social policy delivery and implementation have increased and diversified in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) during the new millennium, with a growing integration of gender-specific policy objectives. However, limited social policy scholarship has focused on the gendered effects of broader social policy models in SSA. The article remedies the concomitant knowledge gaps by examining various social policies and their impacts on working-age women in Mainland Tanzania. The authors also engage with the theoretical welfare regime literature and present an analytical framework for gender-sensitive assessment of emerging social policy models in the Global South.

This study aims to assess the nutritional status and physical fitness status of school children among major ethnic and Dalit populations, in Rajshahi, Bangladesh.

Data were collected through structured questionnaires administered to mothers or caregivers of the children, followed by physical fitness assessments. Anthropometric indicators were used to evaluate nutritional status, including body mass index-for-age, height-for-age, and weight-for-height, based on Centre for Disease Control guidelines. Physical fitness was assessed through tests for flexibility, abdominal, muscular, speed, and lower limb strength. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS.

Approximately 45% of boys and 55% of girls had normal nutritional status. However, the study also identified varying percentages of children with stunted, underweight, wasted, and mixed nutritional issues, highlighting the prevalence of malnutrition among this population. Boys consistently outperformed girls in terms of physical fitness across all age groups, with 84% to 90% of boys meeting established fitness criteria. Girls face a 1.8-fold and 2.2-fold increased risk of wasted and underweight conditions compared to boys. Lower-income group children exhibit a 2.6-fold and 1.6-fold increased risk of wasted conditions and underweight conditions. Children consuming meals twice a day have a 2.1-fold and 2.5-fold elevated risk of wasted and underweight conditions compared to others.

This study highlights the need for interventions and strategies to improve the nutritional and health status of ethnic children in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, considering their diverse dietary habits and lifestyles. By addressing these issues, the authors can empower these communities to actively contribute to the social and economic development of the region.

This study examined the determinants of mobile health (M-Health) application, adoption, usage and discontinuation among corporate workers diagnosed with hypertension and diabetes in Ghana.

The diffusion innovation and reasoned action theories were employed using an exploratory design. Three hundred corporate workers diagnosed with diabetes and hypertension from three health facilities for the past six months were sampled for the study using a multi-stage sampling technique and administered questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression tools were employed in the analysis of data.

The study found a significant number of factors influencing m-health applications adoption, usage and discontinuity. These factors include nature and demand of job, perceived advantage, compatibility, complexity, triability, aesthetics and trust. Aesthetics emerged as the strongest predictive factor for the adoption, usage and discontinuity of use among diabetic and hypertensive corporate workers. With the adoption of M-Health applications, compatibility, as well as nature and demand of job, were significant predictors. With the usage of M-Health applications, complexity, triability, aesthetics and trust were significant predictors. Moreover, perceived advantage, compatibility, complexity and triability influenced significantly the choice to discontinue using M-Health applications. The study concluded that M-Health application functionalities play a valuable role in patients’ intention to adopt, use and discontinue the use of an M-Health application in Ghana.

This exploratory study offers in-depth insight into how major M-Health application features affect its adoption, usage and discontinuity, providing crucial information for future research and the improvement of chronic condition healthcare delivery.