Building the Field of Health Policy and Systems Research: Framing the Questions

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Abstract

In the first of a series of articles addressing the current challenges and opportunities for the development of Health Policy & Systems Research (HPSR), Kabir Sheikh and colleagues lay out the main questions vexing the field.

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Reforming the health sector in developing countries: the central role of policy analysis.

G. Walt, L Gilson (1994)

Policy analysis is an established discipline in the industrialized world, yet its application to developing countries has been limited. The health sector in particular appears to have been neglected. This is surprising because there is a well recognized crisis in health systems, and prescriptions abound of what health policy reforms countries should introduce. However, little attention has been paid to how countries should carry out reforms, much less who is likely to favour or resist such policies. This paper argues that much health policy wrongly focuses attention on the content of reform, and neglects the actors involved in policy reform (at the international, national sub-national levels), the processes contingent on developing and implementing change and the context within which policy is developed. Focus on policy content diverts attention from understanding the processes which explain why desired policy outcomes fail to emerge. The paper is organized in 4 sections. The first sets the scene, demonstrating how the shift from consensus to conflict in health policy established the need for a greater emphasis on policy analysis. The second section explores what is meant by policy analysis. The third investigates what other disciplines have written that help to develop a framework of analysis. And the final section suggests how policy analysis can be used not only to analyze the policy process, but also to plan.

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Health literacy: addressing the health and education divide.

I S Kickbusch (2001)

Health literacy as a discrete form of literacy is becoming increasingly important for social, economic and health development. The positive and multiplier effects of education and general literacy on population health, particularly women's health, are well known and researched. However, a closer analysis of the current HIV/AIDS epidemics, especially in Africa, indicates a complex interface between general literacy and health literacy. While general literacy is an important determinant of health, it is not sufficient to address the major health challenges facing developing and developed societies. As a contribution to the health literacy forum in Health Promotion International, this paper reviews concepts and definitions of literacy and health literacy, and raises conceptual, measurement and strategic challenges. It proposes to develop a set of indicators to quantify health literacy using the experience gained in national literacy surveys around the world. A health literacy index could become an important composite measure of the outcome of health promotion and prevention activities, could document the health competence and capabilities of the population of a given country, community or group and relate it to a set of health, social and economic outcomes.

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Is Open Access

Building the Field of Health Policy and Systems Research: Social Science Matters

Lucy Gilson, Kara Hanson, Kabir Sheikh … (2011)

In the second in a series of articles addressing the current challenges and opportunities for the development of Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR), Lucy Gilson and colleagues argue the importance of insights from the social sciences.

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Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): PLoS Med

Journal ID (publisher-id): PLoS

Journal ID (pmc): plosmed

Title: PLoS Medicine

Publisher: Public Library of Science (San Francisco, USA )

ISSN (Print): 1549-1277

ISSN (Electronic): 1549-1676

Publication date Collection: August 2011

Publication date (Print): August 2011

Publication date (Electronic): 16 August 2011

Volume: 8

Issue: 8

Electronic Location Identifier: e1001073

Affiliations

[1 ]Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi, India

[2 ]School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

[3 ]Department of Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom

[4 ]Ghana Health Service/University of Ghana School of Public Health, Accra, Ghana

[5 ]School of Public Health, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

[6 ]Health Systems Programme, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Author notes

* E-mail: kabir.sheikh@ 123456phfi.org

Wrote the first draft of the manuscript: KS LG IAA KH FS SB. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: KS LG IAA KH FS SB. ICMJE criteria for authorship read and met: KS LG IAA KH FS SB. Agree with manuscript‚s results and conclusions: KS LG IAA KH FS SB.

The Policy Forum allows health policy makers around the world to discuss challenges and opportunities for improving health care in their societies.

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Publisher ID: PMEDICINE-D-11-00782

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001073

PMC ID: 3156683

PubMed ID: 21857809

SO-VID: 585acd40-b072-4342-903a-91453867cddd

Copyright © Sheikh et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Building the Field of Health Policy and Systems Research: Framing the Questions

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Most cited references 25

Reforming the health sector in developing countries: the central role of policy analysis.

Health literacy: addressing the health and education divide.

Building the Field of Health Policy and Systems Research: Social Science Matters

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