In response to the need for health economics modelers to apply more appropriate complex systems models to address complex challenges in public health, an international team of more than 40 experts in the field of complex systems models and economic evaluation has developed and recently published a guideline on the application of complex systems models to the economic evaluation of public health interventions. This paper introduces the development process and main content of the guidelines, which can provide references to facilitate the application of the guidelines by domestic researchers, aiming to ultimately improve the overall quality of public health research and services and improve the health of the population in China.
Objective To summarize and analyze the characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of the current governance framework for public health emergencies in China. Methods The CNKI, VIP, WanFang Data, CBM and PubMed databases were electronically searched to collect studies on the management of major infectious disease outbreaks in China from inception to April 15, 2023. The basic information and governance elements included in the study were extracted and analyzed. Results A total of 30 studies were included, and the time of issuance was from 2020 to 2022. Most of the studies were on COVID-19, focusing on the governance framework of big data governance, holistic governance, and multi-agent collaborative governance. The governance elements were mainly concentrated in three aspects: governance subject, governance cycle and institutional guarantee. The governance entities were concentrated on multi-agent collaborative governance, with the governance cycle mainly focused on in process governance, and the basic guarantee is a multiple guarantee with information technology big data as the main body. Conclusion The governance body of China's major infectious disease epidemic management framework has transitioned from a single entity to a multi entity collaborative governance. While increasing prewarning governance, attention should also be paid to governance during the post recovery period. In terms of system, comprehensive guarantees such as epidemic public opinion control system guarantees, privacy security guarantees, and psychological counseling guarantees should be added.
In order to help Chinese guideline developers, clinicians, health policy makers and other relevant researchers fully understand and make appropriate use of World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, Chinese GRADE Center and Guidelines Review Committee of World Health Organization (WHO-GRC) have written a series of papers about development methods, review principles and the structure and content of WHO guidelines. This is the third (also last) paper which interpreted Consolidated Guidelines on the Use of Antiretroviral Drugs for Treating and Preventing HIV Infection and Guidelines for the Screening, Care and Treatment of Persons with Hepatitis C Infection as examples with the process and steps of WHO guideline development.
Social prescription is a medical model in which social resources are integrated to provide personalized support to targeted population. It can improve health outcomes and reduce the pressure on health system by addressing social determinants of health. It is a new trend of global health. This paper introduces social prescribing’s definition, history, components, global development, effectiveness, existing problems, and practice in China, analyzes the common and individual issues faced by social prescription in development, and puts forward the opportunities for integrating traditional Chinese medicine into social prescribing in China, aiming better to realize the "Healthy China 2030" strategy.
Objective To evaluate the current status of human resources in healthcare-associated infection prevention and control (infection control) in Jiangxi Province, and explore the impact of emergency public health events on the human resources of infection control professionals in various levels and types of medical institutions. Methods From October 1st to 31st, 2023, questionnaire and on-site interviews were conducted to investigate the human resources situation of infection control professionals in various levels and types of medical institutions in Jiangxi Province. Three stages were selected for the investigation: before the outbreak of COVID-19 (before the event, December 2019), during the event (June 2022), and after the transition of COVID-19 (after the event, June 2023), focusing on the characteristics of human resources between before the event and after the event by the comparative analysis. Results Finally, 289 medical institutions were included. There was a statistically significant difference in the number of infection control professionals in medical institutions among 2019, 2022, and 2023 (χ2=189.677, P<0.001). The number of infection control professionals in 2019 was lower than that in 2022 (P<0.001) and 2023 (P<0.001), but there was no statistically significant difference between 2022 and 2023 (P=0.242). The number of infection control professionals per thousand beds in 2019, 2022, and 2023 was 4.40, 6.16, and 5.76, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between 2019 and 2023 in terms of professional titles, gender, educational level, or professional background (P>0.05). Conclusion Emergency public health events have promoted the increase in the number of infection control professionals, but there is no statistical significance in the professional titles, educational level, or professional background of infection control professionals.
Traditional Chinese medicine has been used for the treatment of many diseases including acute infections often associated with public health emergencies for thousands of years. However, clinical evidence supporting the use of these treatments is insufficient, and the mechanism for using Chinese medicine therapy in the public health setting has not been fully established. In this report, the Evidence-based Traditional and Integrative Chinese medicine Responding to Public Health Emergencies Working Group proposed five recommendations to facilitate the inclusion of Chinese medicine as part of our responses to public health emergencies. It is expected that the Working Group’s proposals may promote the investigation and practice of Chinese Medicine in public health settings.
Objective To provide evidence for the establishment and improvement of public health system in China by comparing national public health emergency system of some representative countries.Methods The principle and method of evidence-based science were applied to search and evaluate data from the official websites of China, United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Singapore. The performance of each country’s public health emergency response system in SARS prevention and control, as well as their organization structure and mechanism were compared. The existing problems and corresponding countermeasures were then put forward. Results Public health system showed the best performance was in US, UK and Australia. The responding mechanism of Singapore was highly admired by WHO. The organization structure of China was similar to that of developed countries, but its performance was far lagged behind because of insufficient financial support, poor management and inefficient operational mechanism. Conclusions The public health emergency response system in China needs to be reformed by giving priority to mechanism reinforcement. Different models should be taken into account regarding different regional situations in China.
Objective To assess the methodology and report quality of Chinese systematic reviews/ meta-analyses on prevention and control of six major diseases in public health. Methods Chinese literatures of systematic reviews/ meta-analyses on prevention and control of six major diseases, including cancer, cerebrovascular disease, cardiovascular disease, hepatitis B, tuberculosis, and AIDS were searched in CQVIP, WANFANG Database, CNKI, and the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database from the establishment date to June, 2010. Two researchers independently screened and evaluated the data, disagreements were resolved by discussion. Methodology quality and report quality of included reviews were evaluated by OQAQ scale and PRISMA scale. Result Of the 139 literatures included in the analysis, 32 were systematic reviews while 107 were meta-analyses. The highest and lowest scores of methodology quality were 6.5 and 1.5 respectively. The average score was 4.66±0.92 and no literature could meet all nine items. The main problems were insufficient in literatures resource, bias in data selection, lack of rigorous quality assessment for included original studies and so on. The average score of report quality were 15.28±2.91 and the main problems were incomplete report in abstract, data collection and analysis methods, bias control, conclusion and so on. Conclusion Both of the methodology quality and report quality of included literatures have problems in different levels, which require to be further improved.