Shanghai's Track Record in Population Health Status: What Can Explain It?; Comment on "Shanghai Rising: Health Improvements as Measured by Avoidable Mortality Since 2000"

• Main Author: Tsung-Mei Cheng (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Kerman University of Medical Sciences, 2015-09-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 10.15171/ijhpm.2015.117; 2322-5939; 2322-5939
• Keywords: Population Health; Primary Care; Public Health in China; Universal Health Coverage; Leadership; Chinese Health Reform; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270
• Source: International Journal of Health Policy and Management, Vol 4, Iss 9, Pp 631-632 (2015)

Health reforms that emphasize public health and improvements in primary care can be cost-effective measures to achieve health improvements, especially in developing countries that face severe resource constraints. In their paper "Shanghai rising: health improvements as measured by avoidable mortality since 2000," Gusmano et al suggest that Shanghai's health policy-makers have been successful in reducing avoidable mortality among Shanghai's 14.9 million (2010) registered residents through these policy measures. It is a plausible hypothesis, but the data the authors cite also would be compatible with alternative hypotheses, as the comparison they make with trends in amenable mortality-rate (AM) in large cities in other parts of the world suggests.