Linking Human Health and Livestock Health: A “One-Health” Platform for Integrated Analysis of Human Health,Livestock Health,and Economic Welfare in Livestock Dependent Communities

Background

For most rural households in sub-Saharan Africa, healthy livestock play a key role in averting the burden associated with zoonotic diseases, and in meeting household nutritional and socio-economic needs. However, there is limited understanding of the complex nutritional, socio-economic, and zoonotic pathways that link livestock health to human health and welfare. Here we describe a platform for integrated human health, animal health and economic welfare analysis designed to address this challenge. We provide baseline epidemiological data on disease syndromes in humans and the animals they keep, and provide examples of relationships between human health, animal health and household socio-economic status.

Method

We designed a study to obtain syndromic disease data in animals along with economic and behavioral information for 1500 rural households in Western Kenya already participating in a human syndromic disease surveillance study. Data collection started in February 2013, and each household is visited bi-weekly and data on four human syndromes (fever, jaundice, diarrhea and respiratory illness) and nine animal syndromes (death, respiratory, reproductive, musculoskeletal, nervous, urogenital, digestive, udder disorders, and skin disorders in cattle, sheep, goats and chickens) are collected. Additionally, data from a comprehensive socio-economic survey is collected every 3 months in each of the study households.

Findings

Data from the first year of study showed 93% of the households owned at least one form of livestock (55%, 19%, 41% and 88% own cattle, sheep, goats and chickens respectively). Digestive disorders, mainly diarrhea episodes, were the most common syndromes observed in cattle, goats and sheep, accounting for 56% of all livestock syndromes, followed by respiratory illnesses (18%). In humans, respiratory illnesses accounted for 54% of all illnesses reported, followed by acute febrile illnesses (40%) and diarrhea illnesses (5%). While controlling for household size, the incidence of human illness increased 1.31-fold for every 10 cases of animal illness or death observed (95% CI 1.16–1.49). Access and utilization of animal source foods such as milk and eggs were positively associated with the number of cattle and chickens owned by the household. Additionally, health care seeking was correlated with household incomes and wealth, which were in turn correlated with livestock herd size.

Conclusion

This study platform provides a unique longitudinal dataset that allows for the determination and quantification of linkages between human and animal health, including the impact of healthy animals on human disease averted, malnutrition, household educational attainment, and income levels.     

Ecosystem Health and Sustainability创刊

<正>2015年3月18日,Ecosystem Health and Sustainability(EHS,ISSN:2332-8878)创刊,为全球生态学科技工作者提供了又一个高水平的出版平台。EHS由中国生态学学会与美国生态学会共同出版,是全球第一本由不同国家生态学会合作出版的学术期刊。EHS希望运用现代出版技术和理念,打破国家和学科壁垒,为全世界,特     

Ecosystem Health and Sustainability征稿

正Ecosystem Health and Sustainability(EHS,ISSN 2332-8878),一本全新的、开放获取、在线出版国际期刊。由美国生态学会(ESA)与中国生态学学会(ESC)合作出版。EHS于2015年3月创刊,主要报道宏观生态学和可持续性科学。重点关注人类活动如何影响生态系统的变化,特别关注如何将生态学应用到可持续发展决策中的系统性方法。EHS的国际顾问委员会由23位科学家组成,其中包括多位泰勒奖和沃尔沃奖获得者、     

Ecosystem Health and Sustainability创刊

<正>2015年3月18日,Ecosystem Health and Sustainability(EHS,ISSN:2332-8878)创刊,为全球生态学科技工作者提供了又一个高水平的出版平台。EHS由中国生态学学会与美国生态学会共同出版,是全球第一本由不同国家生态学会合作出版的学术期刊。EHS希望运用现代出版技术和理念,打破国家和学科壁垒,为全世界,特     

Ecosystem Health and Sustainability创刊

<正>2015年3月18日,Ecosystem Health and Sustainability(EHS,ISSN:2332-8878)创刊,为全球生态学科技工作者提供了又一个高水平的出版平台。EHS由中国生态学学会与美国生态学会共同出版,是全球第一本由不同国家生态学会合作出版的学术期刊。EHS希望运用现代出版技术和理念,打破国家和学科壁垒,为全世界,特别是发展中国家和新兴经济体的生态学家提供一个高水平的国际学术交流平台,促进发展中国家与发达国家生态学研究成果的学术交流。     

Ecosystem Health and Sustainability创刊

<正>2015年3月18日,Ecosystem Health and Sustainability(EHS,ISSN:2332-8878)创刊,为全球生态学科技工作者提供了又一个高水平的出版平台。EHS由中国生态学学会与美国生态学会共同出版,是全球第一本由不同国家生态学会合作出版的学术期刊。EHS希望运用现代出版技     

“One Health” or Three? Publication Silos Among the One Health Disciplines

The One Health initiative is a global effort fostering interdisciplinary collaborations to address challenges in human, animal, and environmental health. While One Health has received considerable press, its benefits remain unclear because its effects have not been quantitatively described. We systematically surveyed the published literature and used social network analysis to measure interdisciplinarity in One Health studies constructing dynamic pathogen transmission models. The number of publications fulfilling our search criteria increased by 14.6% per year, which is faster than growth rates for life sciences as a whole and for most biology subdisciplines. Surveyed publications clustered into three communities: one used by ecologists, one used by veterinarians, and a third diverse-authorship community used by population biologists, mathematicians, epidemiologists, and experts in human health. Overlap between these communities increased through time in terms of author number, diversity of co-author affiliations, and diversity of citations. However, communities continue to differ in the systems studied, questions asked, and methods employed. While the infectious disease research community has made significant progress toward integrating its participating disciplines, some segregation—especially along the veterinary/ecological research interface—remains.     

IMS Health展望全球医药市场

据IMS Health近期公布的数据显示,2005年处方药的销售量增长了7％,销售额为6020亿美元。美国仍然独占鳌头,年销售量为2520亿美元。但是美国及另外九个大市场的销售量只增长了5．7％,而中国、俄罗斯、韩国、墨西哥等新兴市场的销售量增长了81％。其中,中国医药市场增长了约20％,达到93亿美元的市场规模;墨西哥市场增长12％,达到75亿美元的规模。拉美地区2005年医药市场增长18．5％,达到240亿美元;而不包括日本在内的亚太及非洲地区的药品销售额也达到464亿美元,增长率为11％。     

Hospital Expenditure at the End-of-Life: What Are the Impacts of Health Status and Health Risks?

Background

It is important for health policy and expenditure projections to understand the relationship between age, death and expenditure on health care (HC). Research has shown that older age groups incur lower hospital costs than previously anticipated and that remaining time to death (TTD) was a much stronger indicator for expenditure than age. How health behaviour or risk factors impact on HC utilisation and costs at the end of life is relatively unknown. Smoking and Body Mass Index (BMI) have featured most prominently and mixed findings exist as to the exact nature of this association.

Methods

This paper considers the relationship between TTD, age and expenditure for inpatient care in the last 12 quarters of life; and introduces measures of health status and risks. A longitudinal dataset covering 35 years is utilised, including baseline survey data linked to hospital and death records. The effect of age, TTD and health indicators on expenditure for inpatient care is estimated using a two-part model.

Results

As individuals approach death costs increase. This effect is highly significant (p<0.01) from the last until the 8th quarter before death and influenced by age. Statistically significant effects on costs were found for: smoking status, systolic blood pressure and lung function (FEV1). On average, smokers incurred lower quarterly costs in their last 12 quarters of life than non-smokers (~7%). Participants’ BMI at baseline did show a negative association with probability of HC utilisation however this effect disappeared when costs were estimated.

Conclusions

Health risk measures obtained at baseline provide a good indication of individuals’ probability of needing medical attention later in life and incurring costs, despite the small size of the effect. Utilising a linked dataset, where such measures are available can add substantially to our ability to explain the relationship between TTD and costs.     

‘Through a Glass Darkly’: The Rockefeller Foundation's International Health Board and Soviet Public Health

In the early 1920s, the Rockefeller Foundation's International Health Board was presenting itself as the watchtower of public health for the world at large. Yet Soviet Russia was never included in any of the International Health Board's programs, despite the efforts of the Russians to reach out to the Board. This paper examines the exclusion of Russia as a function of the conceptual and structural lenses through which the International Health Board ‘saw’ post-revolutionary Soviet public health. It also speculates about the ways in which those who spoke on behalf of Soviet public health contributed to the perceptions of the Board.     

抗生素耐药防控的One Health策略

抗生素耐药作为威胁公共卫生的巨大挑战已经制约了世界经济发展。我国抗生素使用量大,是世界上抗生素滥用最严重的国家之一。文中对人群、食用动物、环境中抗生素耐药产生的原因以及抗生素耐药现状进行综述,针对我国目前抗生素使用与耐药情况,从One Health理念提出了促进抗生素的科学使用、积极探索新型抗生素研发、建立抗生素立体监测网络系统、推广抗生素耐药教育、预防感染等措施,呼吁建立跨学科、跨部门、跨地域的交流与合作,推进我国抗生素耐药防控工作进一步开展,加强环境保护,维护人类与动物的共同健康。     

Health Hazard Appraisal Counseling—Continuing Evaluation

A program of annual health examinations was expanded to include counseling based on a computerized appraisal of individual patients'' specific health risk factors. Data obtained from a specially designed questionnaire, laboratory tests and a physical examination yielded a health hazard appraisal showing a number of weighted risk factors and their relation to ten leading causes of death as determined for that patient. From all of this information, a “risk age” was developed which could then be compared with the patient''s “true age.” The results were reviewed with each patient, and methods of correcting health hazards were stressed. The first annual retesting of a group of 107 examinees showed a net risk age reduction of 1.4 years (formerly reported in this journal). The longer term follow-up reported in this paper showed a net risk reduction of 2.38 years in a group of 26 examinees. The net risk age reduction in the two groups represented 32 and 40 percent, respectively, of the achievable risk age reduction when patients comply with suggestions made during risk reduction counseling. These findings indicate that health hazard appraisal counseling is an effective method of altering priorities of health practices.     

Understanding Inequalities in Child Health in Ethiopia: Health Achievements Are Improving in the Period 2000–2011

Objective

In Ethiopia, coverage of key health services is low, and community based services have been implemented to improve access to key services. This study aims to describe and assess the level and the distribution of health outcomes and coverage for key services in Ethiopia, and their association with socioeconomic and geographic determinants.

Methods

Data were obtained from the 2000, 2005 and 2011 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Surveys. As indicators of access to health care, the following variables were included: Under-five and neonatal deaths, skilled birth attendance, coverage of vaccinations, oral rehydration therapy for diarrhoea, and antibiotics for suspected pneumonia. For each of the indicators in 2011, inequality was described by estimating their concentration index and a geographic Gini index. For further assessment of the inequalities, the concentration indices were decomposed. An index of health achievement, integrating mean coverage and the distribution of coverage, was estimated. Changes from 2000 to 2011 in coverage, inequality and health achievement were assessed.

Results

Significant pro-rich inequalities were found for all indicators except treatment for suspected pneumonia in 2011. The geographic Gini index showed significant regional inequality for most indicators. The decomposition of the 2011 concentration indices revealed that the factor contributing the most to the observed inequalities was different levels of wealth. The mean of all indicators improved from 2000 to 2011, and the health achievement index improved for most indicators. The socioeconomic inequalities seem to increase from 2000 to 2011 for under-five and neonatal deaths, whereas they are stable or decreasing for the other indicators.

Conclusion

There is an unequal socioeconomic and geographic distribution of health and access to key services in Ethiopia. Although the health achievement indices improved for most indicators from 2000 to 2011, socioeconomic determinants need to be addressed in order to achieve better and more fairly distributed health.     

Health Risk or Resource? Gradual and Independent Association between Self-Rated Health and Mortality Persists Over 30 Years

Background

Poor self-rated health (SRH) is associated with increased mortality. However, most studies only adjust for few health risk factors and/or do not analyse whether this association is consistent also for intermediate categories of SRH and for follow-up periods exceeding 5–10 years. This study examined whether the SRH-mortality association remained significant 30 years after assessment when adjusting for a wide range of known clinical, behavioural and socio-demographic risk factors.

Methods

We followed-up 8,251 men and women aged ≥16 years who participated 1977–79 in a community based health study and were anonymously linked with the Swiss National Cohort (SNC) until the end of 2008. Covariates were measured at baseline and included education, marital status, smoking, medical history, medication, blood glucose and pressure.

Results

92.8% of the original study participants could be linked to a census, mortality or emigration record of the SNC. Loss to follow-up 1980–2000 was 5.8%. Even after 30 years of follow-up and after adjustment for all covariates, the association between SRH and all-cause mortality remained strong and estimates almost linearly increased from “excellent” (reference: hazard ratio, HR 1) to “good” (men: HR 1.07 95% confidence interval 0.92–1.24, women: 1.22, 1.01–1.46) to “fair” (1.41, 1.18–1.68; 1.39, 1.14–1.70) to “poor”(1.61, 1.15–2.25; 1.49, 1.07–2.06) to “very poor” (2.85, 1.25–6.51; 1.30, 0.18–9.35). Persons answering the SRH question with “don''t know” (1.87, 1.21–2.88; 1.26, 0.87–1.83) had also an increased mortality risk; this was pronounced in men and in the first years of follow-up.

Conclusions

SRH is a strong and “dose-dependent” predictor of mortality. The association was largely independent from covariates and remained significant after decades. This suggests that SRH provides relevant and sustained health information beyond classical risk factors or medical history and reflects salutogenetic rather than pathogenetic pathways.