Multiple faces of the health transition

Life expectancy among the elderly has been increasing for decades and it has drawn attention to the health conditions of those added years. Functional Capacity (FC) has been used as a basic indicator to appraise health conditions and elderly well-being.
To conceptually characterize FC, there is a standardized framework such as The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). The diversity of proposals to operationalize the concept covers from the way the question is constructed to the scales used to evaluate FC, making it difficult comparison among studies.
An indicator for FC is constructed using Item Response Theory (IRT). Data is the health supplement of the Brazilian National Household Survey (PNAD) in 1998, 2003 and 2008. Since the seven questions under scrutiny presented several level answers, a Generalized Partial Credit Model for ordered polytomous data is adjusted. Answers included four levels of difficulty. A GLM model was then fitted to the indicator using socio-economic explanatory variables.
This paper shows that it is possible to construct a FC scale using IRT. Comparison between two populations is possible if at least a common question exists for the two surveys. One can classify tasks according to some power of discrimination between levels of FC.

The excessive mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD) among males is an important component of high sex ratio of overall mortality. It has been observed that the sex ratio of CVD mortality in some Western countries increased from the 1950s but that has declined in recent years. However, little research has assessed secular trends in the sex differentials of CVD mortality, particularly by age-period-cohort decomposition, in areas under rapid economic development with swift epidemiologic transition and nutrition transition. We examine the trends in the sex ratio of CVD mortality in East Asia (Japan, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) which went through a rapid economic development during the past 5 decades. These trends are compared with those in selected Western populations (Australia, France, England & Wales, and Sweden). Our analyses suggest that the higher sex ratio of CVD mortality occurred among cohorts that had spent a large part of their childhood and early to middle adulthood in a more developed environment. This could be due to the influence of risk factors on males, who appear to be more susceptible to CVD than females. These risk factors are associated with the Nutrition Transition under economic development.

Most of the demographic researches on fertility, reproductive health and contraception focus on females of particular age group especially who are in their reproductive period. Important demographic indicators like fertility, contraception and mortality etc. are estimated on the basis of reporting of the eligible female respondent. But how reliable is the reporting of the wife regarding death of the child? Recently the focus of demographic and health surveys has shifted from being woman centric to couple centric where the couple is taken as a sing unit. The available literature on the subject is also scanty. Hence, this particular study makes an attempt in exploring the matching and mismatch among couples in reporting of the death of the child. The present study analyses the couples information by using a nationally representative sample size of the third round of National Family Health Survey(NFHS-3, 2005-06). Information regarding death is collected both from the husband as well as wife. In India mismatch in reporting of total children died is almost 24 percent of which 14 percent women reported less than their husbands and remaining 10 percent reported higher than their husbands.

Human and his health are affected by various environmental factors that establish human's environment.The effective environmental factors on human's health are descriptive and observable by spatial models and also it is possible to study to how they affect on human's health, understanding mutual reaction between these factors. Both of data from satellite and geographical information system are modern implements that are very powerful to show characteristics of natural environment and also to consider such diseases as Aleppo boil.The number of calculated infected cases to Aleppo boil in the world is thought to be 12 million people and 35 million are facing the danger of getting infected. The main aim is to analysis spatiality of relation between herbal coverage and Aleppo boil in hot and dry regions, by using Geographical Information System and Remote Sensing.
The final aims of this paper are: (a) Recognizing of the high risk regions exposed to Aleppo boil disease.(b) Using some of the advanced techniques of Geographical Information System and Remote Sensing and making political recommendations for monitoring Aleppo boil disease and policy debate for upcoming health challenges in the World.

The individual rate of aging is defined as the relative derivative of one's risk of death with respect to one's age. The b-hypothesis, formulated by Vaupel (2010), postulates that all humans share the same rate of aging. In order to check this hypothesis given the existing aggregate data on human mortality, we present several statistical approaches, their advantages and shortcomings, as well as some preliminary conclusions.

This study investigates the role of unobserved frailty on the estimation of mortality differentials from age 50 on by education level. We used data of a 36 years follow up from the Turin Longitudinal Study containing 391,170 men and 456,216 women. We fitted survival analysis models with and without the unobserved heterogeneity component, controlling for mortality improvement from a cohort and a period perspective. We found that in the majority of the cases, the models without frailty estimated a smaller educational gradient then the models with frailty. During the post war industrialization Turin was the destination of many immigrants from the South of Italy. By adopting a period and cohort perspective and controlling for the individual region of birth we found that the migration flow is likely to have reduced male heterogeneity and the educational gradient.

This paper examines the deferential in Coverage of full immunization, dropout in BCG to measles and gender inequality through selected demographic and socioeconomic variables which effects on the chance of immunisation for children in Maharashtra and in its all five Geographical Region namely, Northern Maharashtra, Vidharbha, Marathwada, Konkan, and Pune. The analysis uses data from the third round of District Level Health Survey, 2006. Bivariate, multivariate and dropout rates are used to understand the differentials and changes in immunization coverage along with that concentration Index is used for measure the gender inequality in coverage of immunization. Results indicate that there is huge regional vitiation in child immunization in Maharashtra. Northern Maharashtra region has poor condition in child immunization than Vidharbha and Marathwada Konkan region has cross the boundary of middle performing criteria and progress is relatively better but slower and smaller. On the other hand Western Maharashtra region has better condition in child immunization. Finding further reveals that higher drop out in BCG to Measles are responsible for lower coverage of full immunization in regions of Maharashtra. Gender inequality in immunization is lower in Northern Maharashtra, vidharbha and Marathwada by richest wealth quintile children

The role of the national health systems is to provide health for their citizens but each country achieves it up to a different degree. The health systems are heterogeneous not only in their efficiency but in their funding, organization and management too. As it is difficult to measure their efficiency in absolute terms, the countries can be compared with each other. The relative efficiency of health systems can be measured by the life expectancy that they provide by taking education level and their funding structure into account. Based on data coming from the HMD, GGS, OECD and WHO, data envelopment analysis is used to explore the relative efficiencies of the countries.

It is presumed that higher rate of morbidity would cause greater chances of mortality. However, the paradox is that females in India recently started experiencing lower rate of mortality with higher rate of morbidity as compared to males. This present paper suggests that gender differential in diseases pattern, severity in illness and greater risk behaviour among males play an important role in explaining the observed paradox. Indian females experience higher level of morbidity with regard to more acute or less life threatening diseases. On the other hand, males experience lower disease burden with regard to more life threatening diseases. The experiencing of more life threatening diseases or higher mortality rate among males across adult age groups is probably the result of males’ greater risk behaviour in terms of smoking, chewing pan masala and drinking alcohol. Therefore, this study expects that policy makers pay serious attention towards males’ health, particularly for the latter age groups. Although, females continue to be are still discriminated against, particularly in the early age groups, males deserve some attention because of their greater risk behaviour besides their facing life threatening diseases.

Objectives: To examine age pattern of socioeconomic gradients across various reported and measured health indicators for Indian adults.
Methods: Cross-sectional data on 11,230 Indian adults aged 18-plus from the Study of Global Ageing and Adult Health, India (SAGE, 2007) is used. Bivariate analysis and logit models with interactions of age and socioeconomic status are applied to examine effects of socioeconomic status on health of Indian adults across ages.
Results: Results reveal a more dynamic pattern of age vis-à-vis socioeconomic gradients on the health of Indian older adults. Negative age gradient prevailed on key indicators of adult health across socioeconomic spectrum. However, age gradient was stronger for the poor and less educated adults. Concurrently, key measures of socioeconomic status: years of schooling and wealth quintile indicated an overwhelming positive gradient on health but with considerable heterogeneity across ages and on different domains of health.
Discussion: Overall, results demonstrate a non-static and counteracting pattern of age vis-à-vis socioeconomic gradients on adult health. Results suggest that the trajectories of age and social determinants interactively determine the health of Indian older adult.