Articles

The IJHPR’s growing scientific impact

The Israel Journal of Health Policy Research (IJHPR) was launched in 2012, with a mission that included fostering intensive intellectual interactions among health policy scholars in Israel and abroad. Now, as ...

Authors: Bruce Rosen, Stephen C. Schoenbaum and Avi Israeli

Dental status, visits, and functional ability and dietary intake of elderly in Israel

Epidemiological studies have shown deterioration in dental health accompanying the ageing process. Tooth loss increases with age. Chewing ability is closely correlated with number of natural teeth present: the...

Authors: L. Natapov, D. Kushnir, R. Goldsmith, R. Dichtiar and S. P. Zusman

Clinical and other specialty services offered by pharmacists in the community: the international arena and Israel

The community pharmacy setting is a venue that is readily accessible to the public. In addition, it is staffed by a pharmacist, who is a healthcare provider, trained and capable of delivering comprehensive pha...

Authors: Eyal Schwartzberg, Joseph P. Nathan, Sivan Avron and Eli Marom

A neo-institutional analysis of the hidden interaction between the Israeli Supreme Court and the Ministry of Finance: the right to healthcare services

Under structural conditions of non-governability, most players in the policy arena in Israel turn to two main channels that have proven effective in promoting the policies they seek: the submission of petition...

Authors: Daniel Sperling and Nissim Cohen

Ethnic-based separation in maternity Departments in Israel – a balanced practical view

Ethnic-based separation in public hospitals in Israel is a sensitive issue that was recently brought forward by the media and was recently discussed in the Israel Journal of Health Policy Research.

Authors: Jonathan Halevy

Reduced hospitalization rates are not associated with increased mortality or readmission rates in an emergency department in Israel

In 2011 the Israeli Ministry of Health (MOH) instructed hospitals to limit occupancy in the internal medicine wards to 120%, which was followed by a nationwide reduction in hospitalization rates. We examined h...

Authors: Sharon A. Greenberg, Pinchas Halpern, Tomer Ziv-Baran and Ronni Gamzu

The evidence—and acceptability—of taxes on unhealthy foods

The global obesity pandemic has public advocates and policymakers grappling with the question of how best to respond. Among the various policy options, unhealthy food and beverage taxes have gained attention a...

Authors: Selvi Rajagopal, Anne Barnhill and Joshua M. Sharfstein

How culturally competent are hospitals in Israel?

Cultural competence (CC) in health systems is the ability to provide care to patients with different values, beliefs and behaviors, and to match the care to their social, cultural and linguistic needs. In 2011...

Authors: Michal Schuster, Irit Elroy and Bruce Rosen

Patient demands for ethnic–based separation in public hospitals in Israel: patients’ and practitioners’ perspectives

Segregation within the healthcare system is commonly associated with disparities in the utilization of health services and in the outcomes of medical care. In Israel, the Jewish majority and the Arab minority ...

Authors: Yael Keshet and Ariela Popper-Giveon

Do disabilities impede the use of information and communication technologies? Findings of a repeated cross-sectional study – 2003-2015

The current research focuses on trends of Internet adoption and digital uses among people with disabilities over a thirteen-year period.

Authors: Sabina Lissitsa and Galit Madar

Harm reduction when it’s for our own kids: comment on Hagit Bonny-Noach, “The evolution of Israeli public policy for drug-using backpackers

Hagit Bonny-Noach notes the challenging history of illicit substance use among Israeli backpackers. Few Israeli practices are more normative than the backpacking-trip as a rite of passage. Unsurprisingly, back...

Authors: Harold A. Pollack

Assessing the determinants of healthcare expenditures in single-person households

The study documents a direct relationship between individuals’ health and patterns of healthcare expenditure by isolating single-person households and creating a new reference group in which household healthca...

Authors: Aviad Tur-Sinai, Racheli Magnezi and Haya Grinvald-Fogel

Nurses in expanded roles to strengthen community-based health promotion and chronic care: policy implications from an international perspective; A commentary

Chronic conditions and health inequalities are increasing worldwide. Against this backdrop, several countries, including Israel, have expanded the roles of nurses as one measure to strengthen the primary care ...

Authors: Claudia B. Maier, Hannah Budde and James Buchan

Improving research and policy interactions requires a better understanding of what works in different contexts

There is keen interest in many jurisdictions in finding ways to improve the way that research evidence informs policy. One possible mechanism for this is to embed academics within government agencies either as...

Authors: Joshua J. Robinson, Nicholas Mays and Alec Fraser

A fragile but critical link: a commentary on the importance of government-academy relationships

Interactions between government and academia can be an important support to effective policy and they can also ground researchers’ methods and perspectives more strongly in the realities of policy-making and p...

Authors: Adalsteinn Brown, Greg Marchildon, Stephen Bornstein and Moriah Ellen

Research in government and academia: the case of health policy

Authors: Sherry Glied, Raphael Wittenberg and Avi Israeli

Improving preventive and health promotion care for children

The emerging science in early childhood development challenges past paradigms of health care. There is consideration within the profession of paediatrics, and health care more broadly, of how to make systems o...

Authors: Moira Inkelas and Frank Oberklaid

Gender differences in the comprehension of care plans in an emergency department setting

Previous studies have shown that, in a variety of health care settings, patients often do not understand what health care professionals tell them about their diagnoses and care plans; this is particularly true...

Authors: Shachaf Shiber, Rona Zuker-Herman, Michael J. Drescher and Marek Glezerman

Promoting patient comprehension of relevant health information

Patient understanding of health care recommendations provided by health care professionals is essential to enabling active and informed patient participation in care. Unfortunately, evidence suggests that pati...

Authors: Gary L. Kreps

Influencing medical student choice of primary care worldwide: international application of the four pillars for primary care physician workforce

Primary care is a crucial part of a functional health care system, though in many parts of the world there are current or projected gaps in the primary care physician workforce. The academic family medicine or...

Authors: Amanda Weidner and Ardis Davis

Health care access and satisfaction in Judean and Samarian communities: opportunities for improving care

There are distinctive potential barriers to optimal health care in Judea and Samaria because of access and satisfaction levels, including obstacles such as its isolation and health care capacity. However, ther...

Authors: Ephraim Shapiro, Avi Zigdon and Rachel Nissanholtz-Gannot

The demographic and morbidity characteristics of a population receiving food support in Israel

Food supply to poor populations is a big challenge, particularly in periods of economic stress and in an era of chronic diseases epidemics. In Israel more than 4000 poor families are currently receiving food s...

Authors: M. Endeweld, R. Goldsmith and R. Endevelt

Using the capabilities approach to understand inequality in primary health-care services for people with severe mental illness

Epidemiological studies show disparities in the provision of physical health-care for people with severe mental illness. This observation includes countries with universal health insurance. However, there is l...

Authors: Maya Lavie-Ajayi, Galia S. Moran, Itzhak Levav, Rotem Porat, Tal Reches, Margalit Goldfracht and Gilad Gal

How can we change medical students’ perceptions of a career in family medicine? Marketing or substance?

Family Medicine (FM) is the care of unselected patients with undifferentiated problems in the settings where people need care in our communities. It is intellectually challenging, providing breadth and depth u...

Authors: Amnon Lahad, Andrew Bazemore, Davorina Petek, William R. Phillips and Dan Merenstein

Antenatal anaesthesia clinics – the way forward?

Specialist antenatal clinics are increasingly being used to enable anaesthetists to evaluate pregnant women with co-morbidities and those at high risk of obstetric complications. In this journal a team from Is...

Authors: Felicity Plaat and Catherine Harris

An international perspective on improving occupational conditions for direct care workers in home health

The occupational health and safety of direct care workers in the home health setting has been the focal point of a somewhat scarce, though highly important, body of research. Although the demand for home care ...

Authors: Miriam Ryvicker

Proven prevention tools for addressing STI epidemics

The ongoing rise of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) poses a global public health challenge and the risk of acquiring one of these infections depends upon sexual practices, the number of sexual encounter...

Authors: Anatole S. Menon-Johansson

Reflections of the quality of primary care in Canada and Israel

Rachel Podell and her colleagues at the National Program for Quality Indicators in Community Healthcare in Israel have provided a clear and engaging description of thequality of primary care provided to the el...

Authors: Richard H. Glazier

The epidemiology and economic burden of hip fractures in Israel

Hip fractures increase the risks of mortality and major morbidity in the elderly. Hip fractures are associated with chronic pain, reduced mobility, disability and increasing dependence. We evaluated the direct...

Authors: Royi Barnea, Yossi Weiss, Ifat Abadi-Korek and Joshua Shemer

Ten years of Israel’s organ transplant law: is it on the right track?

The Israeli organ donor law was established in 2008. In the ensuing 10 years there have been some improvements in deceased donation and living donor rates and a reduction in the unethical practice of transplan...

Authors: Jeffrey Zaltzman

Taxation of sugar sweetened beverages and unhealthy foods: a qualitative study of key opinion leaders’ views

Fiscal policies to fight obesity such as taxation of unhealthy foods or sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) have gained considerable attention in recent years. Many studies modelling the impact of various magnitu...

Authors: Orly Tamir, Tamar Cohen-Yogev, Sharon Furman-Assaf and Ronit Endevelt

Balancing autonomy and expediency within legal parameters: providing primary care to unaccompanied minors

The issue of how primary care clinicians manage unaccompanied minors is not well studied. This month’s article “Treatment of unaccompanied minors in primary care clinics- Caregivers practice and knowledge” beg...

Authors: Kelly Orringer

TB Anywhere is TB Everywhere

To control and prevent outbreaks, public health programs in all countries, regardless of tuberculosis (TB) incidence, must maintain the capacity to perform core control and prevention activities. These include...

Authors: Jonathan M. Wortham

Utilizing compassion and collaboration to reduce violence in healthcare settings

Violence in healthcare settings is a global problem and violent acts are more likely to occur in emergency departments (EDs). Significant barriers to reporting workplace violence persist among healthcare worke...

Authors: Beth A. Lown and Gary S. Setnik

Tuberculosis outbreak in a nursing home involving undocumented migrants and Israeli citizens

Israel has absorbed > 60,000 migrant from the horn of Africa (MHOA) since 2006. No cross-transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from MOHA to Israeli citizens has yet been reported. This study describes the re...

Authors: Z. Mor, N. Nuss, M. Savion, I. Nissan, M. Lidji, S. Maneshcu, H. Kaidar-Shwartz, Z. Amitai, E. Rorman and R. Sheffer

The role of gender in patient preference for breast surgical care – a comment on equality

Gender preference among patients seeking medical care is an issue that is not well understood. It warrants exploration, particularly for patients undergoing sensitive physical exams. In a recent IJHPR article,...

Authors: Tulin D. Cil and Alexandra M. Easson

Heterosexual men who purchase sex and attended an STI clinic in Israel: characteristics and sexual behavior

Commercial sex shares a role in HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STI) transmission. Men who pay for sex (MPS) may transmit HIV/STI to other populations which are low-risk. This study aimed to test our ...

Authors: Rivka Rich, Alex Leventhal, Rivka Sheffer and Zohar Mor

The tip of the iceberg: postpartum suicidality in Israel

Postpartum suicidality, a result of extreme distress or depression, is a tragedy for the woman, infant, and family. Screening for postpartum depression (PPD) is mandatory in Israel, including a question on sui...

Authors: Saralee Glasser, Daphna Levinson, Ethel-Sherry Gordon, Tali Braun, Ziona Haklai and Nehama Goldberger

Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in non - smoking adults in Israel: results of the second Israel biomonitoring survey

Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) increases the risk of heart and respiratory disease, cancer, and premature mortality in non-smoking individuals. Results from the first Israel Biomonitoring Study ...

Authors: Tamar Berman, Zohar Barnett-Itzhaki, Nisim Mery, Lital Keinan-Boker, Tal Shimony, Rebecca Goldsmith, Thomas Göen, Haim Geva and Laura Rosen

Violations of workers’ rights and exposure to work-related abuse of live-in migrant and live-out local home care workers – a preliminary study: implications for health policy and practice

Home care workers work in an isolated environment, with limited supervision and guidance which makes them more prone to abuse and exploitation. While past research focused mostly on the well-being of care reci...

Authors: Ohad Green and Liat Ayalon

Curriculum reform: Why? What? How? and how will we know it works?

In a recent IJHPR article, Dankner et al. describe a reform in one longitudinal strand within Basic Medical Education i.e.“ public health and preventive medicine curriculum” using a Competency Based Medical Ed...

Authors: Shmuel Reis

The quality of primary care provided to the elderly in Israel

In view of increasing global and local trends in population ageing and the high healthcare utilization rates among the elderly, this study assesses the quality of primary care provided to the elderly populatio...

Authors: Rachel Podell, Vered Kaufman Shriqui, Yael Wolff Sagy, Orly Manor and Arie Ben-Yehuda

Treatment of unaccompanied minors in primary care clinics - caregivers' practice and knowledge

By law, the provision of medical treatment to minors in the State of Israel is conditional upon the consent of their parents. In 2004, the Head of the Medical Administration Unit in the Ministry of Health issu...

Authors: Maya Peled-Raz, Michal Perl and Manfred S. Green

Challenges to the Israeli healthcare system: attracting medical students to primary care and to the periphery

The greatest challenges facing healthcare systems include ensuring a sufficient supply of primary care physicians and physicians willing to work in rural or peripheral areas. Especially challenging is enticing...

Authors: Charles Weissman, Rachel Yaffa Zisk-Rony, Alexander Avidan, Uriel Elchalal and Howard Tandeter

Frailty measurement and its contribution to clinical care and health services: a commentary

Frailty is associated with poorer quality of life and higher healthcare utilization and spending. Despite its importance, no clear consensus exists on the definition of frailty. The recent IJHPR article by Buc...

Authors: Shannon Wu and Bruce Leff

Healthcare disparities amongst vulnerable populations of Arabs and Jews in Israel

The complex nature of studying health and healthcare disparities in general, and in the context of the Israeli healthcare system in particular, is depicted in two recent IJHPR articles. The first examines Emer...

Authors: Efrat Shadmi

Regulating pharmaceutical companies’ financial largesse

Nissanholtz-Gannot and Yenkellevich (NGY) explore the impact of a 2010 amendment to the Israeli National Health Insurance Law that requires annual reporting of payments from pharmaceutical companies (PCs) to d...

Authors: Ronen Avraham and Charles Silver

The association between caries related treatment needs and socio-demographic variables among young Israeli adults: a record based cross sectional study

The need for dental treatments, especially those related to dental caries, may be associated with and influenced by a wide range of demographic variables. The aim of this study was to describe caries related t...

Authors: Dan Henry Levy, Alon Livny, Harold Sgan-Cohen and Nirit Yavnai

The evolution of Israeli public policy for drug-using backpackers

Over the past 20 years, the young-adult backpacking trip has emerged as a significant social phenomenon in Israeli society. This has received attention from scholars specializing in anthropology and tourism re...

Authors: Hagit Bonny-Noach

Defining and measuring population health quality of outpatient diabetes care in Israel: lessons from the quality indicators in community health program

In Israel, as in other Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, performance measurement is a key public health strategy in monitoring and improving population health outcomes. The Isra...

Authors: Leonard M. Pogach and David C. Aron