CSU 112/2010: FURTHER READING ON HEALTH EQUITY

Thursday, 4th of November 2010

CSU 112/2010: FURTHER READING ON HEALTH EQUITY

1) PUBLISHED LITERATURE FROM YOUR OWN COUNTRY

Some countries have published studies on equity in health services; others do not. Before saying that there are no published studies on a given subject in your country (or country of assignment), you need to dig through the published citations, which are available at www.pubmed.gov Suppose that you need to look at schistosomiasis in Uganda. You type 'schistosomiasis AND Uganda' in the search box. This gets you 147 references, including 47 with free full text. Searching for 'Equity AND Uganda' yields 31 published studies, including 14 with free text.

Supposing that you want to look at child survival in India. 'Child survival AND India' gets you 390 free full text articles. Limit yourself to 2010, and you get 61 references, which is still enough to keep you busy. Searching for "equity AND India' yields 114 citations, including 22 with free text.

The smaller the country, the fewer the references. If you are from Lesotho or Swaziland, for example, search for neighboring South Africa and choose the most relevant references. Search www.pubmed.gov for 'equity AND [name of country].

To access literature on equity issues in nonmedical areas, use www.scholar.google.com, using Boolean searches like 'Peru AND equity.' You can, if you choose, narrow your search for recent publications.

SURVEYS

The Demographic and Health Surveys use quintile analysis to permit analysis by wealth. To look at DHS data on this subject, go to their homepage, www.measuredhs.org, and type 'equity' in the search box

JOURNALS

There are some articles on equity in BMC International Health and Human Rights, at

http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcinthealthhumrights/

The International Journal for Equity in Health, at http://www.equityhealthj.com/ , is devoted entirely to equity issues. It has a user friendly browsing utility.

FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA

The Network on Equity in Health in Southern Africa is at http://www.equinetafrica.org/

FROM THE COMMISSIONON SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH

In six languages, at http://www.who.int/social_determinants/thecommission/finalreport/closethegap_how/en/index2.html

FROM WIKIPEDIA

Look, as well, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_determinants_of_health

Good reading.

BD

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