Methods to promote equity in health resource allocation in low- and middle-income countries: an overview.
Global Health
; 16(1): 6, 2020 01 13.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-31931823
ABSTRACT
Unfair differences in healthcare access, utilisation, quality or health outcomes exist between and within countries around the world. Improving health equity is a stated objective for many governments and international organizations. We provide an overview of the major tools that have been developed to measure, evaluate and promote health equity, along with the data required to operationalise them.Methods are organised into four key policy questions facing decision-makers (i) what is the current level of inequity in health; (ii) does government health expenditure benefit the worst-off; (iii) can government health expenditure more effectively promote equity; and (iv) which interventions provide the best value for money in reducing inequity.Benefit incidence analysis can be used to estimate the distribution of current public health sector expenditure, with geographical resource allocation formulae and health system reform being the main government policy levers for improving equity. Techniques from the economic evaluation literature, such as extended and distributional cost-effectiveness analysis can be used to identify 'best buy' interventions from a health equity perspective. A range of inequality metrics, from gap measures and slope indices to concentration indices and regression analysis, can be applied to these approaches to evaluate changes in equity.Methods from the economics literature can provide policymakers with a toolkit for addressing multiple aspects of health equity, from outcomes to financial protection, and can be adapted to accommodate data commonly available in low- and middle-income settings.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Asignación de Recursos para la Atención de Salud
/
Equidad en Salud
/
Países en Desarrollo
Límite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Global Health
Año:
2020
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Reino Unido