The costs of delivering routine immunization services in India vary widely across facilities, districts and states. Understanding the factors influencing this cost variation could help predict future immunization costs and suggest approaches for improving the efficiency of service provision. We examined determinants of facility cost for immunization services based on a nationally representative sample of sub-centres and primary health centres (99 and 89 facilities, respectively) by regressing logged total facility costs, both including and excluding vaccine cost, against several explanatory variables. We used a multi-level regression model to account for the multi-stage sampling design, including state- and district-levelrandom effects. We found that facility costs were significantly associated with total doses administered, type of facility, salary of the main vaccinator, number of immunization sessions, and the distance of the facility from the nearest cold chain point. Use of pentavalent vaccine by the state was an important determinant of total facility cost including vaccine cost. India is introducing several new vaccines including some supported by Gavi. Therefore, the government will have to ensure that additional resources will be made available after the support from Gavi ceases.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality in India. Yet, evidence on the CVD risk of India’s population is limited. To inform health system planning and effective targeting of interventions, this study aimed to determine how CVD risk-and the factors that determine risk-varies among states in India, by rural-urban location, and by individual-level sociodemographic characteristics.

The economic burden on households of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, respiratory diseases, and diabetes, poses major challenges to global poverty alleviation efforts. For patients with NCDs, being uninsured is associated with 2-7-fold higher odds of catastrophic levels of out-of-pocket costs; however, the protection offered by health insurance is often incomplete. To enable coverage of the predictable and long-term costs of treatment, national programmes to extend financial protection should be based on schemes that entail compulsory enrolment or be financed through taxation. Priority should be given to eliminating financial barriers to the uptake of and adherence to interventions that are cost-effective and are designed to help the poor. In concert with programmes to strengthen national health systems and governance arrangements, comprehensive financial protection against the growing burden of NCDs is crucial in meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Despite the importance of diabetes for global health, the future economic consequences of the disease remain opaque. We forecast the full global costs of diabetes in adults through the year 2030 and predict the economic consequences of diabetes if global targets under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and World Health Organization Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases 2013-2020 are met.

To categorically describe cancer research funding in the UK by gender of primary investigator (PIs).

Accurate estimates of the burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are needed to establish the magnitude of this global threat in terms of both health and cost, and to paramaterise cost-effectiveness evaluations of interventions aiming to tackle the problem. This review aimed to establish the alternative methodologies used in estimating AMR burden in order to appraise the current evidence base.