income inequality

IMPORTANCE: The health outcomes of increased poverty and inequalities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have been substantially amplified as a consequence of converging multiple crises. Brazil has some of the world's largest conditional cash transfer (Programa Bolsa Família [PBF]), social pension (Beneficio de Prestacão Continuada [BPC]), and primary health care (Estratégia de Saúde da Família [ESF]) programs that could act as mitigating interventions during the current polycrisis era of increasing poverty, slow or contracting economic growth, and conflicts...

Livelihood initiatives are common within marine protected areas (MPAs) aiming for poverty alleviation or higher income opportunities. However, results can be mixed in reality, as well as change over time. Furthermore, who benefits is a key consideration, as results can vary based on inequalities, including gender. Here, the monetary outcomes of different livelihood strategies were investigated across three MPA regions in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Using a quantitative approach, the results show that livelihoods have shifted in a six-year period, with livelihood strategies differing in poverty incidence and income...

BACKGROUND: Disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) has been used to gain a better understanding of the population's quality of life. OBJECTIVES: The authors aimed to estimate age and sex-specific disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) for urban and rural areas of Bangladesh, as well as to investigate the differences in DFLE between males and females of urban and rural areas. METHODS: Data from the Bangladesh Sample Vital Statistics-2016 and the Bangladesh Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES)-2016 were used to calculate the disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) of urban and rural males and females in Bangladesh in 2016...

BACKGROUND: Appendectomy remains a common pediatric surgical procedure with an estimated 80,000 operations performed each year. While prior work has reported the existence of racial disparities in postoperative outcomes, we sought to characterize potential income-based inequalities using a national cohort. METHODS: All non-elective pediatric (<18 years) hospitalizations for appendectomy were tabulated in the 2016-2020 National Inpatient Sample. Only those in the highest ( HI ) and lowest income ( LI ) quartiles were considered for analysis...

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to provide subjective well-being (SWB) population norms in Hungary and explore the contribution of explanatory factors of SWB inequality among the Hungarian adult general population. METHODS: The data originated from a large representative internet-based cross-sectional survey in Hungary, which was conducted in 2020. We applied validated multi-item instruments for measuring SWB, namely SWLS and WHO-5. Multiple linear regressions were employed to examine the relationship between demographic-socioeconomic-health status and both well-being instruments...

Aim: Evaluate the association of race/ethnicity and socioeconomic position (SEP) on emergency department (ED) visits for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which may reflect access to and quality of cancer care. Materials & methods: Patients with HCC identified from a commercial multi-payer claims database between 2015 and 2018 were matched to near-neighborhood social determinants of health (SDOH) and stratified by race/ethnicity and SEP (proxied by annual household income). Analyses evaluated the effect of race/ethnicity and SEP on ED utilization, adjusting for SDOH, demographic and clinical characteristics using multivariable regression methods...

Evidence from medicine and other fields has shown that gender diversity results in better decision making and outcomes. The incoming workforce of congenital heart specialists (especially in pediatric cardiology) appears to be more gender balanced, but past studies have shown many inequities. Gender-associated differences in leadership positions, opportunities presented for academic advancement, and recognition for academic contributions to the field persist. In addition, compensation packages remain disparate if evaluated based on gender with equivalent experience and expertise...

INTRODUCTION: Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 3.8.2 entails financial protection against catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) by reducing out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) on healthcare. India is characterized by one of the highest OOPE on healthcare, in conjunction with the pervasive socio-economic disparities entrenched in the population. As a corollary, India has embarked on the trajectory of ensuring financial risk protection, particularly for the poor, with the launch of various flagship initiatives...

BACKGROUND: Progress in cardiovascular health is increasingly concentrated in high-income countries, while the burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is high in low- and middle-income countries, a clear health inequity that must be urgently addressed. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the prevalence and clustering of CVD risk factors in the three Lancang-Mekong regions. METHODS: We conducted a population-based cross-sectional survey from January 2021 to March 2023 in China, Laos, and Cambodia...

Inequities and gaps in palliative care access are a serious impediment to health systems especially low- and middle-income countries and the accurate measurement of need across health conditions is a critical step to understanding and addressing the issue. Serious Health-related Suffering (SHS) is a novel methodology to measure the palliative care need and was originally developed by The Lancet Commission on Global Access to Palliative Care and Pain Relief. In 2015, the first iteration - SHS 1.0 - was estimated at over 61 million people worldwide experiencing at least 6 billion days of SHS annually as a result of life-limiting and life-threatening conditions...

INTRODUCTION: Low birth weight (LBW) is a global issue prevalent in low-income countries. Economic assessments of interventions to reduce this burden are crucial to guide health policies. However, there is a relative scarcity of research that illustrates the magnitude of LBW by country and region to support the design of public policies. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to analyze the temporal trend of fetal growth in newborns in Brazil between 2010 and 2020. METHODS: A time series study was conducted using data from the Live Births Information System (SINASC), which is managed by the Department of Information and Informatics of the Unified Health System (DATASUS) of the Brazilian Ministry of Health...

Background: Gender disparities in the field of ophthalmology have been increasingly recognized. Although mentorship has been proposed as a contributing factor, there are limited data on the differences in mentorship experiences by gender among ophthalmologists. Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate gender disparities in mentorship experiences among ophthalmologists, and the impact of mentorship disparities on career outcomes. Design: Prospective, cross-sectional study. Setting: Web-based survey distributed through ophthalmology listservs...

BACKGROUND: Although hands-on simulation plays a valuable role in procedural training, there are limited tools available to teach pediatric flexible bronchoscopy (PFB). Fellowship programs rely on patient encounters, with inherent risk, or high-cost virtual reality simulators that may not be widely available and create education inequalities. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to study the educational value and transferability of a novel, low-cost, three-dimensional-printed pediatric airway model (3D-AM) for PFB training...

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this review was to describe how health service and delivery systems in high-income countries define and operationalize health equity. A secondary objective is to identify implementation strategies and indicators being used to integrate and measure health equity. INTRODUCTION: To improve the health of populations, a population health and health equity approach is needed. To date, most work on health equity integration has focused on reducing health inequities within public health, health care delivery, or providers within a health system, but less is known about integration across the health service and delivery system...

BACKGROUND: Planetary health equity (PHE) is defined here as equitable good health in a stable Earth system. PHE is arguably in crisis. Human-made climate change is damaging global populations through hotter temperatures, wildfires, and more severe and frequent storms, flooding, and landslides. A tsunami of health inequities will result from this, as pre-existing health conditions and inequities in living and working conditions ensure that socially disadvantaged groups and people in low-income and middle-income countries are disproportionately affected by climate change...

BACKGROUND: Given the effect of urbanisation on land use, allocation, and implementation of urban green spaces, we attempt to analyse the sociospatial distribution and equity in access to urban parks in Bengaluru, India, also known as the garden city of India. METHODS: Geospatial method was used for mapping the park's distribution and measuring the accessibility using road network data. To understand equitable access to the parks, four socioeconomic parameters from 2011 census (ie, population density, children aged 6 years or younger, proxy wealth index, and the Scheduled Caste population) were correlated with the parks' accessibility...

OBJECTIVE: Actively addressing issues of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in healthcare guidelines provides an important avenue ensure that individuals and communities receive high-quality health care that meets their needs. In 2020, the National Clinical Evidence Taskforce was charged with developing Australian living guidelines for COVID-19 (the Guidelines). It was intended that the Guidelines would consider the biological and social determinants of health underpinning evidence-based recommendations for of the treatment of COVID-19...

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of asthma is gradually increasing worldwide and there are socioeconomic inequalities in the risk of developing asthma. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate whether the lifestyle is associated with asthma in adults, as well as whether and to what extent healthy lifestyles may modify socioeconomic status (SES) inequities in asthma. METHODS: This study included a total of 223951 participants from the UK Biobank. Smoking, physical activity, alcohol consumption, healthy diet patterns, sedentary time, and sleep duration items were used to construct the lifestyle score...

PURPOSE: Financial toxicity (FT) refers to the subjective perception of financial distress resulting from objective economic strain due to illness, exerting a detrimental influence on health outcomes. This study aimed to describe FT among allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplant (allo-HSCT) recipients within a public health framework, employing a social determinants of health approach. METHODS: A multi-centre cross-sectional study involving adult allo-HSCT patients was conducted across three public hospitals in Madrid...

The world's health, economic, and social systems have been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. With lockdown measures being a common response strategy in most countries, many individuals were faced with financial and mental health challenges. The current study explored the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychological well-being, perception of risk factors and coping strategies of two vulnerable groups in Malaysia, namely women and older adults from low-income households (USD592). A purposive sample of 30 women and 30 older adults was interviewed via telephone during Malaysia's Movement Control Order (MCO) regarding the challenges they faced throughout the pandemic...