Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2017 Feb 21;9(1):54-58.
doi: 10.1136/heartasia-2015-010690. eCollection 2017.

Setting priorities to address cardiovascular diseases through universal health coverage in low- and middle-income countries

David A Watkins  1 , Rachel A Nugent  2
Affiliations
Review

Setting priorities to address cardiovascular diseases through universal health coverage in low- and middle-income countries

David A Watkins et al. Heart Asia. .

Abstract

Over the past decade, universal health coverage (UHC) has emerged as a major policy goal for many low- and middle-income country governments. Yet, despite the high burden of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), relatively little is known about how to address CVD through UHC. This review covers three major topics. First, we define UHC and provide some context for its importance, and then we illustrate its relevance to CVD prevention and treatment. Second, we discuss how countries might select high-priority CVD interventions for a UHC health benefits package drawing on economic evaluation methods. Third, we explore some implementation challenges and identify research gaps that, if addressed, could improve the inclusion of CVD into UHC.

Keywords: QUALITY OF CARE AND OUTCOMES.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: DAW and RAN are supported by the Disease Control Priorities Network grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the University of Washington. Additionally, DAW is funded by Medtronic Foundation through support to Rheumatic heart disease Evidence-Advocacy-Communication-Hope (RhEACH) and RHD Action, and RAN is funded by RTI International.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Three dimensions of financing universal health coverage. Figure adapted by authors from refs. and.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Comparison of health and financial risk protection gained per US$100 000 spent on public finance of selected interventions in Ethiopia. Figure modified from Verguet et al, with permission.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. WHO. Everybody business: strengthening health systems to improve health outcomes: WHO's framework for action. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2007.
    1. Xu K, Evans DB, Kawabata K et al. . Household catastrophic health expenditure: a multicountry analysis. Lancet 2003;362:111–17. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(03)13861-5 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ji JS, Chen L. UHC presents universal challenges. Health Syst Reform 2016;2:11–14. doi:10.1080/23288604.2016.1132091 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Huffman MD, Rao KD, Pichon-Riviere A et al. . A cross-sectional study of the microeconomic impact of cardiovascular disease hospitalization in four low- and middle-income countries. PLoS ONE 2011;6:e20821 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020821 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. GBD 2015 DALYs and HALE Collaborators. Global, regional, and national disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for 315 diseases and injuries and healthy life expectancy (HALE), 1990–2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Diseases Study 2015. Lancet 2016;388:1603–58. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31460-X - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources