Journal of public health
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Journal of public health · Sep 2009
Geographical variation in the provision of elective primary hip and knee replacement: the role of socio-demographic, hospital and distance variables.
To explore inequalities in the provision of hip/knee replacement surgery and produce small-area estimates of provision to inform local health planning. ⋯ This study found evidence of inequalities in the provision of joint replacement surgery. However, before we can conclude that there is inequity in receipts of healthcare, future research must consider whether these patterns are explained by variations in need across socio-demographic groups.
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Journal of public health · Sep 2009
Historical ArticleThe role of schools of public health: learning from history, looking to the future.
There is a broad consensus on the need for high-quality public health education and research to tackle the world's many public health challenges. Public health education and research are delivered by a variety of institutions operating very different models, which collectively can be called schools of public health. Given the importance of education and research to public health systems, it is surprising how little research has been done to assess the role of schools of public health in contributing to population health. ⋯ Although the evidence is patchy, a global overview of the history of schools of public health identifies three important themes: capacity building, multidisciplinarity and balancing teaching and research. Newer challenges and opportunities include addressing the impact of climate change and developments in e-learning. Schools of public health have the potential to make a central contribution to progress in public health practice in the twenty-first century.
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Journal of public health · Mar 2009
The place for harm reduction and product regulation in UK tobacco control policy.
Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death in this country and more needs to be done to reduce smoking rates. Harm reduction is one policy option. Smokers smoke for the nicotine, but die from the other toxins in cigarette smoke. ⋯ This would regulate nicotine products in proportion to harm to ensure that, contrary to the current paradoxical arrangements, the most harmful source of nicotine, the cigarette, becomes the most highly regulated (and thus the least easily accessible, available and attractive). It goes onto explore how a harm reduction strategy might be further developed, exploring controversies and potential pitfalls. It argues that the public health community needs to own and drive this debate because failure to do so would let the tobacco industry gain the upper hand and see thousands of more unnecessary deaths from tobacco use.