Journal of public health policy
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J Public Health Policy · Jan 2011
You become afraid to tell them that you are gay: health service utilization by men who have sex with men in South African cities.
We describe the utilization of health services by men who have sex with men (MSM) in South African cities, their perceptions of available health services, and their service preferences. We triangulated data from 32 key informant interviews (KIIs), 18 focus group discussions (FGDs) with MSM in four cities, and a survey of 285 MSM in two cities, recruited through respondent-driven sampling in 2008. ⋯ Fifty-seven per cent of the survey participants had used public health services in the previous 12 months, and 69 per cent had no private health insurance, with no difference by HIV status. Despite these findings, South Africa is well placed to take the lead in sub-Saharan Africa in providing responsive and appropriate HIV services for MSM.
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J Public Health Policy · Dec 2010
Comparative StudyA cross-national comparative study of orphan drug policies in the United States, the European Union, and Japan: towards a made-in-China orphan drug policy.
Rare diseases can severely impact patient life quality as well as impose a serious burden on society. But research and development for drugs to treat these disorders has stagnated because of lack of demand, insufficient knowledge of pathophysiological mechanisms, and too few patients for clinical trials. ⋯ We analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the incentives in these laws and describe the status of rare diseases in China. We offer some recommendations for orphan drug legislation in China, based on local research on rare diseases.
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J Public Health Policy · Sep 2010
Comparative Study Historical ArticleProblems, policies and politics: A comparative case study of contraband tobacco from the 1990s to the present in the Canadian context.
Contraband tobacco has been and continues to be a global public health policy concern, with special manifestations in Canada. Over the past 20 years, in two noteworthy instances the Canadian government has battled contraband - in the early 1990s, and for much of the past decade. ⋯ Unfortunately, contraband made a strong comeback in recent years, but this time the government has hesitated to act, owing to a change in the source of the contraband. Using John Kingdon's streams theory to frame our arguments, we suggest that lack of congruence between different policy stakeholder groups' perceptions of the problem, policy solutions, and political feasibility has road-blocked the implementation of anti-contraband policy in the 2000s.
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J Public Health Policy · Sep 2010
Why the United States lags in auto safety and lessons it can import.
The United States has slipped in recent decades from its role of leadership in combating road crash injuries. The early promise of the country's approach to vehicle safety regulation, adopted by law in 1966, has suffered because of decades of regulatory inertia caused by antiregulatory government policies, industry obstructionism, and failure to set meaningful goals. ⋯ The Obama administration is thus challenged to learn from other nations' successes while reestablishing the US presence as a vigorous proponent of effective crash injury reduction strategies. It can best accomplish this by crafting approaches and objectives that reduce motor vehicle use, reduce harmful disparities within the US vehicle population, and reduce motor vehicle travel speeds.