Biomedical subjects

V U Agu

Publications and source records attributed to V U Agu.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

How to develop an operational plan for health.

BACKGROUND: About 88%, 8%, 36% and 28% of the ministries of health in African countries do not have long-term health plans (LTHPs), health policies (HPs), strategic plans (SPs), and operational plans (OPs), respectively. Eight per cent, 38% and 54% of the countries with OPs rated their formulation as 'excellent', 'satisfactory' and 'needs improvement', respectively. OBJECTIVE(S): To provide a rationale for an OP; to describe its contents; and to explain the process of developing it. DESIGN: Descriptive study. SETTING: Operational plans in the WHO African Region. INTERVENTIONS: Non-intervention descriptive study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Operational plan (OP) for health. RESULTS: An OP framework and process that could be adapted by countries is proposed. CONCLUSION: An adequately formulated OP will contain objectives, targets, expected results, activities, required resources, and a monitoring and evaluation plan (consisting of responsibilities, monitoring indicators, evaluation indicators, data sources - for verifying indicators, and periodicity). In the next two decades, we envision that all the UN agencies and other health partners working in Africa will cooperate with individual countries to develop (or strengthen) LTHPs, HPs, SPs, and OPs of the Ministries of Health (national, provincial and district level).

Africa↗

PubMed1984

A proposed method for the analysis of public health policy in less developed countries.

The study of public health policy in the less developed countries (LDCs) is handicapped by both lack of adequate data and gaps in conceptual apparatus. A new conceptual model is proposed that would be used for future policy analyses to assess what changes in health status of populations in LDCs can be expected as direct functions of increased health service resources, and of improved environmental and econosociocultural conditions. While direct policy analysis is ill-advised at this time due to data inadequacy, the model is illustrated using data presently available for twenty-five relatively homogeneous sub-Sahara African countries. Within the limitations of available data, the findings suggest that reductions in mortality in the region might best be achieved by making appropriate health resources available to the populations. Study findings also suggest that physicians contributed more during the study period to the variance in physical health status than did medical assistants.

Africa↗

PubMed1980

Geographic patterns of multiple myeloma: racial and industrial correlates, State of Texas, 1969-71.

Age-adjusted mortality rates for multiple myeloma in Texas State economic area(s) (TSEA) were correlated with selected occupations. After control was made for the percentage of population classified as black, the positive association between the age-adjusted mortality rate from multiple myeloma and percentage of the population in each TSEA employed in beauty shops, carpentry, and agricultural industries was significant (P < 0.05). The findings emphasized the possible importance of race as a confounding variable in ecologic analyses of environmental and industrial exposure associated with mortality due to multiple myeloma. The data supported previous findings by another investigator of a strong association between farming occupations and death from multiple myeloma.

Agriculture↗