In the developed world, older people make up an increasing proportion of the population, and this demographic transition also affects some developing countries. In general, older people are at increased risk of disease, disability and financial and social deprivation compared to younger people in the sam...
Day care is considered to be an important component of psychiatric services, but the evidence on different forms of day care is not easy to interpret. This review evaluates five main forms of day care for adults with severe mental disorders: acute psychiatric day hospital care, transitional psychiatric d...
Many disease prevention and health promotion programmes are directed at the health of children and young people because they can prevent both immediate problems (mortality and morbidity) and long-term problems. However, even where there is evidence to support such public health interventions, implementat...
Hepatitis C infection has been declared a global health problem. Prevalence is most common among injecting drug user populations, where up to 98% can be infected despite a low HIV prevalence. Up to 20% of those infected with hepatitis C can clear the virus, though chronic infection can lead to significan...
The well-established links between poor health, poor housing and poverty suggest that housing improvements in disadvantaged areas or social housing may provide a population-based strategy to improve health and reduce health inequalities. Housing improvements that reduce exposure to specific hazards may l...
Homeless people have poorer physical and mental health than the general population, and often have problems obtaining suitable health care. This synthesis has critically reviewed the international literature pertaining to the health care needs of homeless people in countries with relatively well-develope...
For many people, the hospital has come to
symbolize the modern health care system.
Yet in many countries, the role of the acute
hospital is changing, with an emphasis on
outpatient diagnosis and treatment as well as
alternatives to long-term hospital care, leading to reductions in numbers of hospital
bed...
Depression is a common health care problem and is largely managed in primary care, with little or no specialist input from secondary care services. The quality of care is often low, with poor recognition of the condition, inadequate prescription, poor compliance with medication and poor provision and upt...
Ageing populations are characteristic of many countries. The pattern of disease at the end of life is changing and more people are living with serious chronic circulatory and respiratory diseases as well as with cancer. More people will need help at the end of life, in a social context of changing family...
The European Region had 15% of its population 65 years old or older and nearly 7% 75 or over in 2000, the world’s highest percentages. By 2030 these figures will increase to 24% and 12% respectively. The effect on health care will be amplified by a disproportionate increase in dementia, and depression,...
