BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer remains the second most common cause of death in women and poses a growing public health challenge. It is urgent to increase cervical cancer screening rates in Kenya as per the 2018 Kenya National Cancer Screening Guidelines. Addressing access to care may serve as a target to achieve this goal; however, how individual dimensions of access to care are associated with the utilization of cervical cancer screening services in low- and middle-income countries, including Kenya, remains unclear. This study aimed to examine how different aspects of access to care (affordability, availability, geographical access, and social influence) were associated with cervical cancer screening among Kenyan women of reproductive age.
METHODS: This cross-sectional study used data from the 2014 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey and the 2010 Kenya Service Provision Assessment. The final sample included 5,563 women aged 25-49 years. Logistic regression models were used to examine the association between different aspects of access to care and the uptake of cervical cancer screening.
RESULTS: Factors such as being in the poorest wealth quintile, lacking health insurance, having difficulty obtaining funds for treatment (affordability), limited availability of screening services at nearby facilities (availability), living in rural areas (geographical access), and having healthcare decisions made solely by husbands/partners or others (social influence) were associated with a decreased likelihood of the uptake of cervical cancer screening.
CONCLUSIONS: Increasing health insurance coverage, enhancing the availability of screening services at health facilities, expanding mobile screening health facilities in rural areas, and empowering women to make their own healthcare decisions are crucial steps for increasing cervical cancer screening uptake in Kenya.

Community-based psychological counselling services (CPCS) is crucial for the oldest-old who often faces challenges or are reluctant to seek care at the healthcare settings. This study aims to examine trends in availability of CPCS over time and rural-urban disparities in service availability among nationwide oldest-old in China.
Multiple cross-sectional data were derived from the 2005-2018 Chinese Longitudinal Health Longevity Survey. Service availability was reported by each oldest-old participant or their next-of-kins as having CPCS in one\'s neighborhood. We used Cochran-Armitage tests to estimate service availability trends and applied sample-weighted logistic regression models to examine its rural-urban disparities.
Of 38,032 oldest-old, CPCS availability decreased from 6.7 % in 2005 to 4.8 % in 2008/2009, followed by continual increases to 13.6 % in 2017/2018. In 2017/2018, rural oldest-old\'s neighborhoods had no greater service availability. Oldest-old residing in the Central (6.7 %), Western (13.4 %) and Northeast China (8.1 %) were less likely to report having services locally than their Eastern counterparts (17.8 %). Oldest-old having any disability or living in the nursing homes reported having greater service availability than those without disability or living at home.
Service availability might have been disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite the increasing service availability, as of 2017/2018, only 13.6 % oldest-old in China had reported CPCS availability. It raises concerns on the disproportionate access to and continuity of mental health care, especially for those living the Central, Western China and those living at home. Policy efforts are needed to incentivize service expansion and eliminate disparities in the service availability.

This study aims to assess trends in rural-urban disparities in the prevalence of unmet community-based home visiting services need and their contributing factors from 2005 to 2018 among oldest-old in China.
The Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey data of oldest-old collected with a targeted random-sampling approach from half of counties/cities from 23 provinces across China was used. Unmet need was measured as the differences between healthcare services expected and available. We used Cochran-Armitage tests to test linear trends in prevalence of unmet need. Average marginal differences were estimated to measure magnitude of rural-urban disparities in prevalence of unmet need. Changes in rural-urban disparities were decomposed using Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition technique to logit models. All analysis was performed by Stata 15.0.
From 2005-2018, decreased trends in prevalence of unmet need were observed (overall: 62.4% to 48.6%; rural: 65.9% to 47.3%; urban: 57.5% to 49.8%) (all ptrend < 0.001). In 2017/2018, urban oldest-old reported greater prevalence of unmet need (average marginal difference, 95% CI: 3.7% [0.4%-7.1%]); affluent oldest-old reported less unmet need than their peers. Oldest-old from Central and Western China reported greater prevalence of unmet need than their Eastern peers. Increases in income (percentages of explained change, overall: 21.3%; rural: 16.9%, urban: 36.9%) mainly contributed to decreased trends in prevalence of unmet need.
Oldest-old with socioeconomic disadvantages or living in Central and Western China reported greater prevalence of unmet need. Policy efforts are warranted to ensure equitable access to home visiting services among those oldest-old.

Introduction: Although persistent inhibition of HBV replication by antiviral therapy has shown to slow disease progression, cost-related access barriers to these essential medicines are becoming salient. The national volume-based procurement (NVBP) was piloted in China and led to substantial reduction in the list price of prescription drugs. To examine the impact of NVBP on selected antiviral medication costs per defined daily dose (DDD), procurement volumes, and spending. Methods: We employed an interrupted time series design to examine changes in cost per defined daily dose (DDD), procurement volumes, and spending for NVBP bid-winning antiviral medications (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate and entecavir) in 11 pilot cities from 2017 to 2020. Procurement transaction data were obtained from 9,454 hospitals in the Chinese Hospital Pharmaceutical Audit (CHPA) database. In the secondary analysis, the control group comprised two non-NVBP drugs (adefovir and lamivudine) procured in 11 cities not exposed to the NVBP. Results: Cost per DDD of the two hepatitis B virus (HBV) antiviral medications reduced by CNY1.598 (p = 0.002) immediately following the implementation of NVBP, dropping from an average cost of CNY16.483 per DDD at baseline to CNY6.420 at the end of the observation period. NVBP implementation resulted in a substantial reduction in daily costs of antivirals and an increase in monthly procurement volumes by 6.674 million DDDs (p = 0.017), while monthly spending was reduced by CNY138.26 million (p = 0.002). In the secondary ITS analysis with a control group, the average cost per DDD of the NVBP bid-winning antivirals declined by CNY4.537 (p < 0.001), monthly procurement volumes increased by 7.209 million DDDs (p = 0.002), and monthly spending dropped by CNY138.83 million (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Volume-based procurement piloted in China may be effective for reducing price and total expenditures and improving drug utilization, which is especially important for HBV patients who need constant access to antiviral therapies.

Background: Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the leading birth defect in China, and many patients require congenital heart surgery (CHS) to achieve optimal outcomes. However, the current landscape and population accessibility to specialist resources for CHS in China are unclear. Methods: Care facilities performing CHS were identified from the 2018 white book of Chinese cardiovascular surgery and were categorized as full or limited facilities based on specialist capacity. Census-based population data and road data were obtained from administrative sources. Service area analysis of all facilities was performed to estimate geographic accessibility. Results: Of 93 facilities in 14 provinces and municipalities in northern China, only 30.1% had full specialist capacity. The shortage of pediatric cardiologists and mechanical circulatory support was the primary limiting factor. In 2018, 61.3% of facilities performed <200 CHS cases, and 31.6% of all CHS cases (N = 30,921) were performed in limited facilities with substantially lower volume than full-capacity facilities (median value: 85.0 vs. 368.0). Beijing had a disproportionately higher CHS volume (367 cases per million population) than other provinces. Of all children under 5 in northern China, only 12.9% live within 30 km (a typical half-day visit) of the service areas of all facilities. Compared to children from the eastern region (31.4%), 71.8% of children from the central region and 70.2% of children from the western region needed to travel >180 km (a typical overnight visit) to receive care in full-capacity facilities. Conclusions: Many facilities for CHS in northern China had limited specialist capacity, and many CHD patients received suboptimal surgical care. Policy measures should address the significant geographic disparities to receive high-quality surgical care among disadvantaged patients.

Access to psychiatric care is critical for patients discharged from hospital psychiatric units to ensure continuity of care. When face-to-face follow-up is unavailable or undesirable, telepsychiatry becomes a promising alternative. This study aimed to investigate hospital- and county-level characteristics associated with telepsychiatry adoption.
Cross-sectional national data of 3475 acute care hospitals were derived from the 2017 American Hospital Association Annual Survey. Generalized linear regression models were used to identify characteristics associated with telepsychiatry adoption.
About one-sixth (548 [15.8%]) of hospitals reported having telepsychiatry with a wide variation across states. Rural noncore hospitals were less likely to adopt telepsychiatry (8.3%) than hospitals in rural micropolitan (13.6%) and urban counties (19.4%). Hospitals with both outpatient and inpatient psychiatric care services (marginal difference [95% CI]: 16.0% [12.1% to 19.9%]) and hospitals only with outpatient psychiatric services (6.5% [3.7% to 9.4%]) were more likely to have telepsychiatry than hospitals with neither psychiatric services. Federal hospitals (48.9% [32.5 to 65.3%]), system-affiliated hospitals (3.9% [1.2% to 6.6%]), hospitals with larger bed size (Quartile IV vs. I: 6.2% [0.7% to 11.6%]), and hospitals with greater ratio of Medicaid inpatient days to total inpatient days (Quartile IV vs. I: 4.9% [0.3% to 9.4%]) were more likely to have telepsychiatry than their counterparts. Private non-profit hospitals (- 6.9% [- 11.7% to - 2.0%]) and hospitals in counties designated as whole mental health professional shortage areas (- 6.6% [- 12.7% to - 0.5%]) were less likely to have telepsychiatry.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, telepsychiatry adoption in US hospitals was low with substantial variations by urban and rural status and by state in 2017. This raises concerns about access to psychiatric services and continuity of care for patients discharged from hospitals.

OBJECTIVE: To understand the storied experiences of accessing symptom management services of patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) who are receiving maintenance dialysis.
METHODS: Narrative inquiry.
METHODS: Ten patients with ESKD who were receiving dialysis were recruited at two regional hospitals in Hong Kong and interviewed three times each between July 2017-July 2018 to capture their narratives. The data were analysed using the narrative inquiry approach from the perspective of Levesque\'s framework of access to care.
RESULTS: Five themes emerged from the participants\' narratives. The first theme illustrated access to care as a process by which symptom management needs were met. However, clinicians occasionally identified patients based on their diseases instead of their needs and this process was affected differently by interpersonal and system factors. The themes \'building trust\' and \'facilitating communication\' described interpersonal factors that were essential to maintaining a constructive patient-clinician partnership. The themes \'balancing efficiency\' and \'navigating fragmented system\' described system-related factors.
CONCLUSIONS: This study identified the factors that influenced the delivery and/or reception of symptom management services for patients with ESKD who were receiving dialysis. The results suggest that healthcare services should be streamlined based on patients\' needs and that this process should address the important elements of trust and communication.
CONCLUSIONS: The study\'s results suggest potential improvements to symptom management services that would enable patients\' needs to be addressed in a timely and humanistic manner.
目的: 了解接受维持性透析的终末期肾病(ESKD)患者获得症状管理服务的经历。 设计: 叙事研究 方法: 在2017年7月至2018年7月期间, 在香港两家地区医院招募了10名正在接受透析的ESKD患者, 并分别对每名患者进行了三次访谈, 以记录其叙述。从Levesquee获得护理框架的角度, 采用叙述式调查方法对数据进行分析。 结果: 参与者的叙述中出现了五项主题。第一项主题说明获得护理是满足症状管理需求的过程。但是, 临床医生偶尔会根据患者的疾病而非其需求来识别患者, 并且这一过程受到人际和系统因素的不同影响。‘建立信任’和‘促进沟通’两项主题对维持建设性的患者--临床医生伙伴关系所必需的人际因素进行了说明。‘平衡效率’和‘导航碎片化系统’对系统相关因素进行了说明。 结论: 本研究确定了影响接受透析的ESKD患者提供和/或接受症状管理服务的因素。研究结果表明, 医疗保健服务应根据患者的需求进行精简, 而这一过程应考虑到信任和沟通等重要因素。 影响: 该项研究的结果表明了症状管理服务的潜在改进, 将使病人的需求得到及时且人性化的解决。.

Early diagnosis is important to control COVID-19 outbreaks. This study aimed to assess how individual and area socioeconomic position and geographical accessibility to healthcare services were associated with the time to diagnosis among symptomatic COVID-19 patients in Hong Kong. Multivariable generalized linear regression was used to estimate the associations while adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics and case classification. This study found living in public rental housing and living in an area with low education were associated with longer time to diagnosis in the first wave of infections. Specifically, the risk of delayed diagnosis for public rental housing residents was mitigated by the higher density of public clinics/hospitals but was slightly increased by the higher density of private medical practitioners nearby. No such relations were found in the second wave of infections when the surveillance measures were enhanced. Given the grave impact of pandemics around the world, our findings call on taking inequalities into account when public health policies are being devised.

BACKGROUND: It was recommended that malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) should be available in all epidemiological situations. But evidence was limited on the implementation of RDTs and its effectiveness in malaria elimination settings. This study examined the implementation of RDTs and how it affected the diagnosis of imported malaria patients in Jiangsu Province, China.
METHODS: To scale up RDTs, this study developed an intervention package with four major elements covering the supply of RDT test, the training on RDTs, the monitoring and management of RDT use, and the advocacy of RDTs. By using a pretest-posttest control group design, we implemented the interventions in 4 cities in Jiangsu Province with the rest nine cities as controlled areas, from January 2017 to January 2018. Difference-in-Difference approach was used to evaluate the impact of the scale-up of RDTs on the identification of malaria cases. Three binary outcome measures were included to indicate delayed malaria diagnosis, malaria cases with confirmed malaria diagnosis at township-level institutions, and severe malaria cases, respectively. Linear probability regression was performed with time and group fixed effects and the interaction term between time and group.
RESULTS: Intervention areas received sufficient RDT test supply, regular professional training programs, monthly tracking and management of RDT supply and use, and health education to targeted population. The implementation of interventions was associated with 10.8% (P = 0.021) fewer patients with delayed diagnosis. But intervention areas did not see a higher likelihood of having confirmed diagnosis from township-level institutions (coefficient = -0.038, P = 0.185) or reduced severe malaria cases (coef. = 0.040, P = 0.592).
CONCLUSIONS: The comprehensive package of RDT implementation in this study is promising in scaling up RDT use and improving access to care among malaria patients, especially in malaria elimination settings.

On behalf of the World Kidney Day Steering Committee Chronic kidney disease affects approximately 10% of the world\'s adult population: it is within the top 20 causes of death worldwide, and its impact on patients and their families can be devastating. World Kidney Day and International Women\'s Day in 2018 coincide, thus offering an opportunity to reflect on the importance of women\'s health and specifically their kidney health, on the community, and the next generations, as well as to strive to be more curious about the unique aspects of kidney disease in women so that we may apply those learnings more broadly. Girls and women, who make up approximately 50% of the world\'s population, are important contributors to society and their families. Gender differences continue to exist around the world in access to education, medical care, and participation in clinical studies. Pregnancy is a unique state for women, offering an opportunity for diagnosis of kidney disease, but also a state where acute and chronic kidney diseases may manifest, and which may impact future generations with respect to kidney health. There are various autoimmune and other conditions that are more likely to impact women with profound consequences for child bearing, and on the fetus. Women have different complications on dialysis than men, and are more likely to be donors than recipients of kidney transplants. In this editorial, we focus on what we do and do not know about women, kidney health, and kidney disease, and what we might learn in the future to improve outcomes worldwide.
От имени Организационного комитета Всемирного дня почки. Перевод с английского Е.В. Захаровой. Перевод осуществлен по инициативе Российского диализного общества и одобрен Организационным комитетом Всемирного дня почки. Аннотация Около 10% взрослого населения планеты страдает хронической болезнью почек, которая входит в список 20 основных причин смерти во всем мире и ведет к пагубным последствиям как для самих пациентов, так и для членов их семей. Всемирный день почки в 2018 г. совпадает с Международным женским днем, что дает нам повод задуматься об особой важности состояния здоровья женщин, и в особенности о «почечном здоровье», для ныне живущей популяции и для будущих поколений. Нам представляется не только уникальная возможность узнать как можно больше об особенностях заболеваний почек у женщин, но и шире использовать полученные знания. Женщины, девушки и девочки в целом составляют примерно 50% населения мира и вносят огромный вклад в жизнь общества, не говоря уже об их важнейшей роли в семейной жизни. Вместе с тем гендерные различия в доступе к образованию, медицинской помощи и участию в клинических исследованиях все еще существуют практически повсеместно. Беременность, представляющая собой особую нагрузку на организм женщины и нередко оказывающаяся поводом для выявления уже существующего заболевания почек, может также приводить к манифестации острых и хронических почечных заболеваний, которые, в свою очередь, могут сказываться на потомстве (в том числе и на состоянии почек). Многие аутоиммунные и другие заболевания чаще развиваются у женщин, чем у мужчин, и неблагоприятно сказываются на способности к деторождению и на состоянии плода. Осложнения диализа у женщин отличаются от осложнений у мужчин; кроме того, женщины с большей вероятностью оказываются донорами, нежели реципиентами почечного трансплантата. В этой статье мы сконцентрировали внимание на том, что мы знаем и чего мы не знаем о «почечном здоровье» и заболеваниях почек у женщин, и на том, что мы можем и должны узнать в будущем для улучшения исходов заболеваний почек во всем мире.