Public Health

That clinical medicine has contributed enormously to our ability to treat and cure sick people is beyond contention. But whether and to what extent medical care has transformed morbidity and mortality patterns at a population level and what contribution, if any, it has made to the well-being and..

Deaths and injuries related to firearms constitute a major public health problem in the United States. In response to firearm violence and other firearm-related injuries and deaths, an interdisciplinary, interprofessional group of leaders of 8 national health professional organizations and the American Bar Association, representing the official policy positions of their organizations, advocate a series of measures aimed at reducing the health and public health consequences of firearms. The specific recommendations include universal background checks of gun purchasers, elimination of physician "gag laws," restricting the manufacture and sale of military-style assault weapons and large-capacity magazines for civilian use, and research to support strategies for reducing firearm-related injuries and deaths...

With more than 66 million beneficiaries, Medicaid is the United States' largest insurer, and its impact on health insurance coverage, access to care, and the health of the poor has been substantial. But historically, Medicaid has faced a major challenge — a relatively low rate of physician..

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Remarkable progress has been made towards halving of maternal deaths and deaths of children aged 1-59 months, although the task is incomplete. Newborn deaths and stillbirths were largely invisible in the Millennium Development Goals, and have continued to fall between maternal and child health efforts, with much slower reduction. This Series and the Every Newborn Action Plan outline mortality goals for newborn babies (ten or fewer per 1000 livebirths) and stillbirths (ten or fewer per 1000 total births) by 2035, aligning with A Promise Renewed target for children and the vision of Every Woman Every Child...

Increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity has led policy-makers to consider health-related taxes to limit the consumption of unhealthy foods and beverages. Such taxes are currently already in place in countries in Europe (e.g. Hungary, France and Finland) and in various states in the USA. Although these taxes are possibly efficient in reducing by a small amount the consumption of targeted products if the tax is fully transmitted to the consumer, there is too little available evidence on what will be consumed instead and whether these food substitutions undermine the hoped-for health benefits of the tax...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.