This book is about doing innovative research to achieve sustainable and equitable change in people’s health and well-being through improved interactions with the environment. It presents experiences from the field of ecosystem approaches to health (or ecohealth research) and some insights and lessons learned. It builds on previous literature, notably Forget (1997), Forget and Lebel (2001), Lebel (2003), and Waltner-Toews et al. (2008). Through case-studies and other contributions by researchers supported by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the book presents evidence of real changes in conditions of people, their health, and the ecosystems that support them. These changes were derived from applications of an ecosystem approach to health in developing regions of the world. The book also illustrates the resulting body of applied, participatory, and action research that improved health and environmental management in developing countries and, in many cases, influenced policies and practices.

Informed and Healthy: Theoretical and Applied Perspectives on the Value of Information to Health Care focuses on two major issues: the value attributed to information by users and its effect on health care; and, a new model of information behavior in which the value of information drives various information activities (unlike many information models which tend to give prominence to information needs). The inductive development of the model is explained, with associated implications for theory and transferability or applicability elsewhere. The book uses a case study of the health information system in Uganda and expands the analysis by comparing it to other systems utilized by different countries in diverse levels of development. Topics such as access and use of information; value attribution and effect on health outcomes; and modelling information behavior and its implications on health informatics are discussed in detail. This book is a valuable resource for health professionals, planners, and policy makers, as well as researchers interested in health information systems and their applicability in different environments. - Provides a new model of information behaviour that emerges inductively from qualitative data - Focuses on value of information rather than information needs - Explains in detail the methodological approach used to value attribution - Serves as a valuable resource for health professionals, planners, and policy makers, as well as researchers interested in health information systems and their applicability in different environments

This book provides a state-of-the-art, comprehensive review of the many factors that affect women’s health, ranging from low socioeconomic status and the impact of the debt crisis to more direct medical determinants, such as poor nutrition, hemorrhage, eclampsia, and infection. At stake are the unnecessary and preventable deaths of women and girls around the globe. The contributors assess the reduced quality of life for women and the often unacknowledged contributions of women and girls as the backbone of production in both developing and developed countries. Synthesizing perspectives of policymakers and practitioners, researchers and scholars, The Health of Women urges major new initiatives to understand and improve women’s health, taking into account biological elements such as the life cycle of women as well as cultural constraints and socioeconomic realities.

Population-based cancer survival rates offer an important benchmark for measuring a health care system's overall effectiveness in the fight against cancer. While this type of information on high-resource countries is readily available, Cancer Survival in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Central America presents in-depth cancer survival data from 27 population-based cancer registries in 14 low- and middle-resource countries. The striking inequalities in cancer survival between countries and within countries described in this volume are largely related to the differences in general awareness, availability of early detection practices, trained human resources, diagnosis and treatment and the development and accessibility to cancer services, as well as, to a lesser extent, to issues of data quality and reliability. The differences in cancer survival reported in populations observed between and within countries studied in this volume provide valuable insights for future planning and investment by governments in primary prevention activities, early detection initiatives and tertiary care to achieve meaningful cancer control. The calendar period of registration of incident cases for the present study ranges between 1990 and 2001. Data on 564 606 cases of 1-56 cancer sites from different registries are reported. Data from eleven registries were utilized for eliciting survival trend and seventeen registries for reporting survival by clinical extent of disease. Besides chapters on every registry and general chapters on methodology, database and overview, the availability of online comparative statistics on cancer survival data by participating registries or cancer site in the form of tables or graphs is an added feature.

Uganda has attracted much attention and political visibility for its significant economic recovery after a catastrophic decline. In her groundbreaking book, Aili Mari Tripp provides extensive data and analysis of patterns of political behavior and institutions by focusing on the unique success of indigenous women’s organizations. Tripp explores why the women’s movement grew so dramatically in such a short time after the National Resistant Movement took over in 1986. Unlike many African countries where organizations and institutions are controlled by a ruling party or regime, the Ugandan women’s movement gained its momentum by remaining autonomous.

Essential Readings in Health Behavior: Theory and Practice is ideal as a companion to the textbook Essentials of Health Behavior. It complements the text in several ways: First, it offers selections from readings referred to and outlined in the text. Second, the annotations introducing the readings provide guidance and tie them to themes outlined in the basic text. Third, the readings provides students and the instructor with options for exploring issues in more depth. Finally, the reader includes case-related articles concerning ways in which the theoretical approaches to behavior have been applied in real-world settings - both successfully and unsuccessfully.

Vols. for 1963- include as pt. 2 of the Jan. issue: Medical subject headings.

"The government of Uganda faces a multitude of challenges in the health care arena, from ensuring that health care services are delivered in the most equitable manner, to structuring the health care delivery system to be most effective, to waging campaigns against the leading causes of mortality and morbidity. The government needs the best information available on existing conditions, in order to devise strategies to successfully meet these challenges." This technical paper summarizes the results of three research efforts concerning current health care issues in Uganda. Its purpose is to summarize key actions and identify new challenges. In Part I, "Equity of Access to Health Services in Uganda: The Effects of Income, Gender, Proximity to Services, and Quality of Care," the author examines a number of factors that affect access to health services, including quality of services and income. Part II of this technical paper, "Decentralization of Health Services in Uganda: Moving Toward Improved Delivery of Services," summarizes the key actions that have been undertaken during the decentralization of Uganda's health sector and identifies challenges that are emerging during this process. Part III, "Malaria: A Priority Health Problem," summarizes the status of malaria control in Uganda and highlights some of the key issues that need to be addressed to further strengthen malaria control efforts. This paper should prove useful to those working in Uganda and in other countries facing similar policy changes, to anticipate the challenges as they seek to improve the quality of health and other public services.