With vigorous development of the Evidence-Based Practice (EBP), systematic review as a reliable basis for decision making is becoming more and more important, especially in emergent and significant situation under the influence of various interferences. But there are many misunderstandings and fallacies in systematic review beyond medical field, which block the spread and application of systematic review in health system decisions. This paper takes the evidences of health intervention practice as examples, explores the functions of systematic review in health system decisions, tries to clarify these misunderstandings and fallacies, and so as to promote the development of systematic review.
The health status, health needs and demands as well as the concept of health itself have changes dramatically in the last one hundred years, the organizational and institutional evolutions of health system took place accordingly. To adapt the changes of health system, medical education has experienced three generations of major reform in the last century: the science-based curricula, problem-based instruction, system-based and competence-oriented education. At the same time the organization of medical education evolved from academic medicine to academic health center to academic health system. This article briefly describes the process of this evolution and presents author’s personal views on academic health system.
Objective To explore the impact of community healthcare workers’ (CHWs) knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) on the influenza vaccination among elderly people. Methods By means of simple random sampling, 1 residential quarter of each communities, 2 communities of each districts, 5 districts of Chengdu city were randomly selected, and the elderly equal to or more than 60-year-old were on-site investigated. Meanwhile, the questionnaire survey was conducted among healthcare workers in the selected communities. Results There were 4 KAP factors played a positive role in influenza vaccination among elderly people: CHWs’ affirmation of the effectiveness of influenza vaccine, explicitly knowing the focus groups for influenza vaccination, recommendation of vaccination in flu season when the elderly visits, and participation in flu-related education activities. When the accuracy rate of each factor got improved by 1%, the influenza vaccination rate would improve by 2.747%, 1.299%, 0.864%, 0.602%, respectively. Conclusion The knowledge, attitude and practice of HCWs have impacts on the influenza vaccination rates of elderly people. They are significant to improve the influenza vaccination rates of the elderly.
The shortage of health workforce in rural and remote areas has been commonly concerned by every country around the word. It is one of world health issues, challenging the aspirations of achieving equity. In this regard, WHO developed the Global Policy Recommendations to improve the accessibility of the health workforce in rural and remote areas through improved retention. This article focuses on the key steps of the policy guideline developed from evidence-based medicine methodology and from angle of guideline development, mainly about background, issues, evidence retrieval and selection, quality grading of evidence, and the forming of recommendation plan, in order to further explore how to correctly understand, obtain, evaluate and apply currently available research evidence, and how to use the GRADE system to make scientific and feasible recommendations in the decision-making process, emphasizing the importance of evidence and the GRADE system in the evidence-based health decision-making.
Objective To retrospectively compare short-term outcomes and health economics of PHS versus UHS for inguinal hernia repair. Methods We included 105 patients suffering from reducible inguinal hernia hospitalized in the First Affiliated Hospital of Lanzhou University from September, 2007 and September, 2012. The referred hernia types involved direct and indirect hernia (unilateral and bilateral). Based on different repair materials, the patients were divided into two groups, PHS group (n=53) and UHS group (n=52). Outcome parameters for comparison included incidences of seroma and scrotum edema, hospital duration, costs, etc. Results There were no differences in age, sex, hernia type, incidences of seroma and scrotum edema after surgery, hospital duration and costs between the two groups. However, the patients in the PHS group spent less money than those in the UHS group regarding the costs of materials and hospitalization, with significant differences. Conclusion For inguinal hernia repair, PHS and UHS are alike in reducing short-term complications, but PHS can significantly reduce patients’ economic burden due to less costs.
Objective To comprehensively summarize and analyze the status quo, assessing contents and problems of the assessment studies on appropriate health technology in China. Methods With the search terms and strategies predefined by repeated discussion and pre-retrieval, all literature on appropriate health technology assessment in China published from October 1949 to March 2012 were searched in the following databases: CBM, VIP, CNKI and WanFang Data. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, two reviewers independently screened literature, and extracted and cross-checked data. Disagreements were resolved by discussion or by involving a third researcher. The qualitative synthesis method was used to analyze the studies. Results Among total 174 included studies, 117 were cross-sectional. Targeted populations were patients and community residents who had received the service or treatment of appropriate health technology, as well as the grassroots medical staffs and workers from marketing organization who had used or carried out the appropriate health technologies. Appropriate health technologies mainly contained four fields of appropriate health technology: traditional Chinese medicine, western medicine, family planning services and community health services. Most types of diseases involved in those technologies were circulatory system diseases, and high blood pressure was highly concerned. The contents of appropriate health technology assessment mainly included 6 aspects: effectiveness, acceptability, economic characteristics, requirements, safety and technical specific property. The results of the included studies indicated that, most assessments focused on just one aspect, and were lack of comprehensive evaluation. The indexes used in each assessment covered a far too wide range, and was lack of unified index and standards. Conclusion Current studies show that the fields of appropriate health technology assessment distribute widely; the assessment content is simple and lack of comprehensive evaluation; the assessment index system has no unified standard; and the study design methods are different and lack of high quality study design. So it is necessary to conduct high quality assessment studies, establish scientific assessment index system, and systematically assess appropriate health technology, so as to provide more scientific basis for health decision makers.
Objective To learn and evaluate the effect of health education of schistosomiasis in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, so as to provide scientific basis for establishing the comprehensive prevention and control model in potential epidemic area of schistosomiasis. Methods Through adopting the multi-stage stratified cluster sampling method, the questionnaires were distributed to residents selected randomly from the demonstration, inside and outside control areas. The survey data were input with EpiData 3.0 software by two reviewers, and the differences among groups were analyzed by using SPSS 18.0 software to further evaluate the effect of health education of schistosomiasis. Results All the questionnaires distributed to 1 420 residents were retrieved (100%). The results of analysis showed that for the residents in the demonstration area, the average score of being aware of schistosomiasis prevention was (7.51±2.89), which was markedly higher than those in the inside (2.52±2.97) and the outside (3.13±3.51) control areas, with significant differences (Plt;0.05); and the passing rates were 78.15%, which was also obviously higher than those in the inside (17.26%) and the outside control areas (32.16%), with significant differences (Plt;0.05). Conclusion The health education of schistosomiasis can improve residents’ knowledge about schistosomiasis prevention, and it is very important to prevent and control the potential prevalence of schistosomiasis in the Three Gorges Area.
Objective To investigate current situation of medical service and management in Gaozha Central Township Health Center (GzC), so as to provide baseline data for township health centers in both key techniques research and product development of drugs allocation and delivery. Methods A questionnaire combined with a special interview was carried out, which included the general information, human resources, medical service and management, and the practice of essential medicine list. Results a) The hardware condition of GzC was not good enough, and the economic status of the service recipients was lower than the average level of both Wuzhong City and China mainland; b) The constituent ratio of general practitioner (GP) and nurse, and GP and laboratorian were all lower than those of national level, while, the constituent ratio of GP and technician was a little bit higher. GzC was in short of medical technical personnel and, especially, the professional pharmacists. The logistics technical workers were as the same proportion as the nurses. The medical technical personnel without professional education background accounted for 3.4%, and about 38% of the staff members had no college degree, about 86.2% had at most primary profession titles. There was no personnel turnover of GzC in recently years; c) The bed utilization ratio was lower than national level (46.4% vs. 60.7%), while the average duration of stay and the in-patient and out-patient service workload of GP were longer or heavier than national level (8 vs. 4.8, 9 vs. 8.3, 4 vs. 1.3); d) The out-patient service in 2010 decreased 26.9% compared to 2009; and the in-patient service in 2010 decreased 42.4%; e) The average medical expense per outpatient and per inpatient increased 127.3% and 56.2%, respectively in 2010 compared to 2009; and f) Essential medicine list was put into practice in April 1st of 2010 and there was only 195 species available in GzC, which has not met the requirements of the national essential medicine list. Conclusion In order to meet the standards of general rural township health center in western China, GzC needs to cope with challenges of insufficient hardware conditions, short of staff, unreasonable personnel structure, low educational background and professional title of the staff, none human resources flow and low technical level of medical service. GzC dose well in drug expenses control, and the hospitalization costs are lower than those of the national level. However, it increases rapidly in 2010. The management of GzC may be influenced by zero-profit sale of the essential drugs, and appropriate subsidy and policy support are necessary to maintain its service quality. And it is required to complement the medicine based on the evidences, to carry out staff training and usage guidance of essential medicine, and to finally guarantee the safe and reasonable use of medicines.
Objective To investigate the disease constitution and cost of inpatients in Gaozha Central Township Health Center (GzC) in Wuzhong City of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region from 2008 to 2010, so as to provide baseline data for further research. Methods A questionnaire combined with a special interview was carried out, and case records and cost information of GzC inpatients in 2008, 2009 and 2010 (from January to November) were collected. The diseases in discharge record were classified according to International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) based on the first diagnose and the cost was analyzed. Data including general information of the inpatients, discharge diagnosis, hospitalization expenses, and drug cost etc. were rearranged and analyzed by Excel software. Results a) The total number of the inpatients was 1124, 642 and 747 in 2008, 2009 and 2010, respectively. The female was more than the male in both 2008 (59.34% vs. 40.66%) and 2009 (60.75% vs. 39.25%), and their disease spectrum included 17 categories, which accounted for 81% of ICD-10; b) The top six most commonly seen systematic diseases with a constituent ratio from 86.63% to 92.06% in recent three years were as follows: the respiratory system, digestive system, circulatory system, genitourinary system, injury and toxicosis, skeletal musculature and connective tissue disease. Except the injury and toxicosis, the other five systematic diseases were commonly seen in females rather than in males; c) The top 15 monopathies in recent three years were pulmonary infection, tracheitis or bronchitis, coronary heart disease, soft tissue injury, gastritis or chronic gastritis, upper respiratory infection, hypertension, urinary tract infection, prolapse of lumbar intervertebral disc, pelvic inflammation, fracture, pneumocardial diseases, superficial injury, chronic cholecystitis and arthritis; d) The main burdens of disease for inpatients focused on 35-54 age groups, then followed by the age groups above 55 in 2008 and 2009. Except the injury and toxicosis, the other diseases were commonly seen in females rather than in males. Pulmonary infection focused on the age groups above 35; the onset of hypertension increased obviously and a sharp rise of hypertension existed in the 45-54 age groups in 2008, but the hypertention focused on 35-44 age groups in 2009; e) The total inpatients with top 15 monopathies accounted for 64.06% to 71.21%, including 8-9 chronic diseases ranking higher in 2010, and 6-7 acute diseases focusing on infection and injury; and f) The average costs of chronic diseases were higher than those of acute diseases. Conclusion a) There is a big gap between GzC and Yong’an Central Township Health Center (YaC) regarding the level of the regional economic development, the situation of disease burden and cost of inpatients. The former is demonstrated as general Central Township Health Center, while the latter as affluent Central Township Health Center in western China; b) In recent three years, the main systematic diseases are in respiratory, circulatory and digestive system; the inpatients suffer from more chronic diseases rather than acute diseases in their young age; the acute diseases mainly include infection and injury, and the pulmonary infection has ranked as the first during the past three years; c) The inpatients in 2008 and 2009 are mainly in ages of 35 to 54, and then are over 55 years old. Except the injury and toxicosis, the other diseases were commonly seen in females rather than in males; d) The patients’ average costs of chronic diseases for hospitalization and drug in 2010 were lower than those of YaC. Consideration on reasonable constitution of the cost for hospitalization should be paid attention to; and e) It is urgent to strengthen the construction of infrastructure and informatization in GzC.
Objective To understand current situation of medical service and management in Yong’an Central Township Health Center (YaC) through on-the-spot investigation, in order to provide references for personal employment and essential medicines list implement in township health centers. Methods Questionnaire and focus interview were carried out, which included the general information, human resources, medical service and management, and the practice of essential medicines list. Results The hardware equipments of YaC were fine, and the target population had fairly good health and economy status. The ratio of General Practitioner (GP)/ nurse and GP/ pharmacist were all above the national average level. The members with college degree and above accounted for 61.6%, and about 88% staffs were with or below primary profession titles. There was a balance between personnel flow out and in. The drug income accounted for 53.6% of the whole in 2009 and the medical expenses increased compared to 2008. Essential medicines list was put into practice in April 1st of 2010 with no relevant technical documents as correspondence. Conclusion YaC, as a good representative of fairly well-off rural Township Health Center in western China, needs to cope with challenges of irrational personnel structure, low educational background and professional title of the staff and human resources flow, and requires developing policy and adopting measures step by step. The management of YaC may be influenced by zero-profit price of the essential medicine, and appropriate subsidy and policy support are necessary to maintain current service quality.