The global economic downturn has been associated with increased unemployment and reduced public-sector expenditure on health care (PSEH). We determined the association between unemployment, PSEH and HIV mortality.

Many low- and middle-income countries have introduced State-funded health programmes for vulnerable groups as part of global efforts to universalise health coverage. Similarly, India introduced the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) in 2008, a publicly-funded national health insurance scheme for people below the poverty line. The authors explore the RSBY’s genesis and early development in order to understand its conceptualisation and design principles and thereby establish a baseline for assessing RSBY’s performance in the future.

The global economic downturn has been associated with increased unemployment in many countries. Insights into the impact of unemployment on specific health conditions remain limited. We determined the association between unemployment and prostate cancer mortality in members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). We used multivariate regression analysis to assess the association between changes in unemployment and prostate cancer mortality in OECD member states between 1990 and 2009. Country-specific differences in healthcare infrastructure, population structure, and population size were controlled for and lag analyses conducted. Several robustness checks were also performed. Time trend analyses were used to predict the number of excess deaths from prostate cancer following the 2008 global recession. Between 1990 and 2009, a 1% rise in unemployment was associated with an increase in prostate cancer mortality. Lag analysis showed a continued increase in mortality years after unemployment rises. The association between unemployment and prostate cancer mortality remained significant in robustness checks with 46 controls. Eight of the 21 OECD countries for which a time trend analysis was conducted, exhibited an estimated excess of prostate cancer deaths in at least one of 2008, 2009, or 2010, based on 2000-2007 trends. Rises in unemployment are associated with significant increases in prostate cancer mortality. Initiatives that bolster employment may help to minimise prostate cancer mortality during times of economic hardship.

HIV has fuelled increasing tuberculosis (TB) incidence in sub-Saharan Africa. Better control of TB in this region may be achieved directly through TB programme improvements and indirectly through expanded use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) among those with HIV. We used a mathematical model of TB and HIV in South Africa to examine the potential epidemiological impact in scenarios involving improvements in three dimensions of TB programmes: coverage, diagnosis and treatment effectiveness, as well as expanded ART use through broadened eligibility. We projected the effect of alternative scenarios on TB prevalence, incidence and TB-related mortality over 20 years. Of the three dimensions of TB programme improvement, expanding coverage would produce the greatest reduction in TB burden. Compared with current performance, combined TB programme improvements were projected to decrease TB incidence by 30% over 5 years and 46% over 20 years, and decrease TB-related mortality by 45% over 5 years and 69% over 20 years. Expanded ART eligibility was projected to decrease TB incidence by 22% over 5 years and 45% over 20 years, and TB-related mortality by 22% over 5 years and 50% over 20 years. We found that over a 20-year horizon, TB-specific and HIV-specific programme changes contribute equally to incidence reductions, whereas the TB-specific changes produce a majority of the mortality benefits. An aggressive expansion of ART alongside traditional TB-specific control measures has the potential to greatly reduce TB burden, with the different elements of a combined approach having a synergistic effect in reducing long-term TB incidence and mortality.

Many intrinsically related determinants of health and disease exist, including social and economic status, education, employment, housing, and physical and environmental exposures. These factors interact to cumulatively affect health and disease burden of individuals and populations, and to establish health inequities and disparities across and within countries. Biomedical models of health care decrease adverse consequences of disease, but are not enough to effectively improve individual and population health and advance health equity. Social determinants of health are especially important in Latin American countries, which are characterised by adverse colonial legacies, tremendous social injustice, huge socioeconomic disparities, and wide health inequities. Poverty and inequality worsened substantially in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s in these countries. Many Latin American countries have introduced public policies that integrate health, social, and economic actions, and have sought to develop health systems that incorporate multisectoral interventions when introducing universal health coverage to improve health and its upstream determinants. We present case studies from four Latin American countries to show the design and implementation of health programmes underpinned by intersectoral action and social participation that have reached national scale to effectively address social determinants of health, improve health outcomes, and reduce health inequities. Investment in managerial and political capacity, strong political and managerial commitment, and state programmes, not just time-limited government actions, have been crucial in underpinning the success of these policies.