In the United States, there is a largely hidden burden of diseases caused by a group of chronic and debilitating parasitic, bacterial, and congenital infections known as the neglected infections of poverty. Like their neglected tropical disease counterparts in developing countries, the neglected infections of poverty in the US disproportionately affect impoverished and under-represented minorit...

Chronic kidney disease is becoming a public health challenge due to the high risk of progression to end-stage kidney disease, the increased cardiovascular burden and management costs, especially among disadvantaged communities. Although the high prevalence of hypertension and diabetes in these populations are recognized risk factors and a leading cause of chronic kidney disease, ethnic populati...

The purpose of this paper is to identify lessons relevant to sub-Saharan Africa that have been learned from various experiences around the world in restructuring of the telecommunications sector and efforts to extend service to unserved or underserved populations. Each lesson is documented with cases and examples, with a particular focus on developing countries, but examples from the U.S., Cana...

BACKGROUND Clinical practice guidelines are developed to improve the quality of healthcare. However, clinical guidelines may contribute to health inequities experienced by disadvantaged groups. This study uses an equity lens developed by the International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN) to examine how well clinical guidelines address inequities experienced by individuals with intellectua...

BACKGROUND The association between income inequality and societal performance has been intensely debated in recent decades. This paper reports how unmet need for medical care has changed in Europe during The Great Recession, and investigates whether countries with smaller income differences have been more successful than inegalitarian countries in protecting access to medical care during an eco...

BACKGROUND While it is known that a variety of factors (biological, behavioural and interventional) play a major role in the health of individuals and populations, the importance of the role of social determinants is less clear. The effect of social inequality on population-based screening for colorectal cancer (CRC) could limit the value of such programmes. The present study aims to determine ...

With growing fear of a worldwide influenza pandemic, programs that can rapidly vaccinate a broad range of persons are urgently needed. Vaccination rates are low among disadvantaged and hard-to-reach populations living within urban communities, and delivering vaccines to these groups may prove challenging. Project VIVA1 (Venue-Intensive Vaccination for Adults), staffed by teams of nurses and out...