HEALTH STATUS - HEALTH SERVICE RESOURCES - ECONOSOCIOCULTURAL DEVELOPMENT: IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH CARE POLICY IN AFRICA

Rational health services planning requires an examination of the effects of various factors on the health status of a population within a given set of socioeconomic circumstances. The commonly accepted explanations for improved health in the less developed countries (LDCs) are: Health Service Resources available to a population, Environmental and Life conditions, and the Econosociocultural Characteristics of the population.^ In the context of the low economic base from which many LDCs initiate development activities, a strong imperative exists for identifying in which of these major areas public health policy would be most effective in terms of improving health. A new conceptual model is proposed that would be used for future policy analyses to assess what changes in health status of populations in LDCs can be expected as direct functions of increased health service resources, and of improved environmental and econosociocultural conditions.^ While direct policy analysis is ill-advised at this time due to data inadequacy, the model is illustrated using data presently available for twenty-five relatively homogeneous Sub-Sahara African countries. Within the limitations of available data, study findings indicate that while econosociocultural conditions were the most important explanatory factors of the three major independent variables in 1970, health service resources became the most important in 1975. Study findings are inconclusive at this time with regards to the relative contributions of physicians and medical assistants in explaining variances in mortality in these countries.^ Because of the deficient nature of available data, study findings should be interpreted very cautiously. Tests of statistical significance of study findings were by-passed because of their situational technical inappropriateness. This study is significant in being the first of its kind and scope to focus on the Sub-Sahara African region of the World Health Organization, using the Wroclaw Taxonomic Method in conjunction with a stepwise regression technique. It is desirable, therefore, to examine the observed magnitude and directional consistency of all hypothesized relationships, even if evidence is inconclusive. ^

The effects of health changes on projections of health service needs for the elderly population of the United States

The 1982–1994 National Long-Term Care Surveys indicate an accelerating decline in disability among the U.S. elderly population, suggesting that a 1.5% annual decline in chronic disability for elderly persons is achievable. Furthermore, many risk factors for chronic diseases show improvements, many linked to education, from 1910 to the present. Projections indicate the proportion of persons aged 85–89 with less than 8 years of education will decline from 65% in 1980 to 15% in 2015. Health and socioeconomic status trends are not directly represented in Medicare Trust Fund and Social Security Administration beneficiary projections. Thus, they may have different economic implications from projections directly accounting for health trends. A 1.5% annual disability decline keeps the support ratio (ratio of economically active persons aged 20–64 to the number of chronically disabled persons aged 65+) above its 1994 value, 22:1, when the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund was in fiscal balance, to 2070. With no changes in disability, projections indicate a support ratio in 2070 of 8:1—63% below a cash flow balance.

Private practice option : National Health Service Corps guidebook.

Mode of access: Internet.

A report on public and community health personnel : prepared for the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives and the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, United States Senate, as required by section 793 of the Public health service act

"December 7, 1979."

Public health personnel in the United States, 1980 : second report to the Congress of the Secretary of Health and Human Services as required by section 793 of the Public Health Service Act.

Mode of access: Internet.

Maternal, child health, and family planning services [microform] : hearings before the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, One Hundredth Congress, second session, February 25, 1988--healthy children, investing in the future; April 22, 1988--Title X of the Public Health Service Act (H.R. 3769).

"Serial no. 100-149."

Healthy people 2000 : public health service action /

Mode of access: Internet.

The Public Health Service strategic plan to combat HIV & AIDS in the United States /

Running title: Strategic plan to combat AIDS & HIV in the U.S.

Guide to health organization in the United States /

U.S. Public Health Service. Miscellaneous publication no. 35.

Organization and staffing for full-time local health services; analysis of information submitted to the Public Health Service in Report of public health personnel as of December 31, 1954.

Mode of access: Internet.

President's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control : report on Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service/Health Care Financing Administration.

Mode of access: Internet.

Navy directory. Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps, also including officers of the U.S. Naval Reserve Force, Marine Corps Reserve, Coast Guard, Coast and Geodetic Survey, Public Health Service, and foreign officers serving with the Navy.

Suspended J1.1, 1921-Jan. 1, 1922.

The National Health Service Corps practice management guide book.

Prepared under a contract for the National Health Service Corps by Family Health Care, Inc.

U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

4 leaves in pocket.