Ruth Loos and colleagues report findings from a meta-analysis of multiple studies examining the extent to which physical activity attenuates effects of a specific gene variant, FTO, on obesity in adults and children. They report a fairly substantial attenuation by physical activity on the effects of this genetic variant on the risk of obesity in adults.
Igor Rudan and colleagues report the results of their consensus building exercise that identified health research priorities to help reduce child mortality from pneumonia.
Protecting citizens against the financial consequences of illness has long been a key objective of health systems worldwide. In the United Kingdom for example, financial protection—which refers to how far people are protected from the financial consequences of illness—was the fundamental goal when the National Health Service was established in 1948, more than health improvement or equitable access to health care.
The United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on HIV/AIDS in 2001 was a critical event that dramatically enhanced the global AIDS response. Ten years later, the September 2011 UN High-Level Meeting on Noncommunicable Disease Prevention and Control provides a similar opportunity for the international community and national stakeholders to raise awareness and launch an effective global response to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). It is an opportunity that should not be missed as it will not likely occur again.
Several sub-Saharan African countries have rapidly scaled up the number of households that own insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs). Although the efficacy of ITNs in trials has been shown, evidence on their impact under routine conditions is limited to a few countries and the extent to which the scale-up of ITNs has improved population health remains uncertain.
There is robust evidence of the efficacy of insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs) in reducing malaria parasite prevalence, incidence, and all-cause child mortality from carefully conducted trials in sub-Saharan Africa across a range of transmission settings. Trials have shown ITNs to both significantly reduce Plasmodium falciparum prevalence among children under 5 years old by 13% and post-neonatal (1–59 months) all-cause mortality by 18% in areas of stable malaria transmission in Africa.
The flow of populations within and across international boundaries is an important element in today's globalized world. Recent estimates of migration patterns place the combined numbers of international migrants and internal migrants at nearly a billion people. Although migrant populations are extremely diverse, the processes of migration include certain characteristics shared by all migrants.
Despite regulatory restrictions, off-label marketing of pharmaceutical products has been common in the US. However, the scope of off-label marketing remains poorly characterized. We developed a typology for the strategies and practices that constitute off-label marketing.
India's rapid economic growth, after the initiation of market-oriented reforms two decades ago, has been the subject of considerable international attention. However, this accelerated economic growth has not been matched by marked improvements in many of the key indicators of health.
