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\"Examines patterns of income inequality among 16 advanced democracies from the mid 1970s to the early 2000s and explains why some societies have a large and growing divide between the rich and the poor while others, facing similar global economic pressures, maintain more egalitarian income distributions\"--Provided by publisher.

Labour market institutions, including collective bargaining, the regulation of employment contracts and social protection policies, are instrumental for improving the well-being of workers, their families and society. In many countries, these institutions have been eroded, whilst in other countries they do not exist at all.

The revised and updated second edition of Water and Sanitation Related Diseases and the Changing Environment offers an interdisciplinary guide to the conditions responsible for water and sanitation related diseases. The authors discuss the pathogens, vectors, and their biology, morbidity and mortality that result from a lack of safe water and sanitation. The text also explores the distribution of these diseases and the conditions that must be met to reduce or eradicate them.  The text includes contributions from authorities from the fields of climate change, epidemiology, environmental health, environmental engineering, global health, medicine, medical anthropology, nutrition, population, and public health. Covers the causes of individual diseases with basic information about the diseases and data on the distribution, prevalence, and incidence as well as interconnected factors such as environmental factors. The authors cover access to and maintenance of clean water, and guidelines for the safe use of wastewater, excreta, and grey water, plus examples of solutions.  Written for students, and professionals in infectious disease, public health and medicine, chemical and environmental engineering, and international affairs, the second edition of Water and Sanitation Related Diseases and the Changing Environment isa comprehensive resource to the conditions responsible for water and sanitation related diseases.

This study aims to determine whether the effect of income inequality on economic growth is realised through transmission channels theoretically expressed. This relationship is examined for 143 countries and the periods between 1980 and 2017 through positive and negative channels. These countries are divided into two groups by considering their income levels and they are analysed with panel data econometric techniques. Although the findings provide evidence that high inequality adversely affects economic growth, it can be stated that this inference cannot be generalized when countries' income levels are taken into account. Countries with higher inequality tend to have higher fertility rates and less innovative activity. The financial market imperfections in developing countries adversely affect human capital investments. On the other hand, high inequality tends to increase saving propensity in developed countries and provides evidence for the positive channel. The findings highlight the complexity of the impact of income inequality on economic growth. Therefore, indirect impact needs to be scrutinized and policy recommendations need to be carefully designed.

Antihypertensive medicines are effective in reducing adverse cardiovascular events. Our aim was to compare hypertension awareness, treatment, and control, and how they have changed over time, in high-income countries. We used data from people aged 40–79 years who participated in 123 national health examination surveys from 1976 to 2017 in 12 high-income countries: Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Spain, the UK, and the USA. We calculated the proportion of participants with hypertension, which was defined as systolic blood pressure of 140 mm Hg or more, or diastolic blood pressure of 90 mm Hg or more, or being on pharmacological treatment for hypertension, who were aware of their condition, who were treated, and whose hypertension was controlled (ie, lower than 140/90 mm Hg). Data from 526 336 participants were used in these analyses. In their most recent surveys, Canada, South Korea, Australia, and the UK had the lowest prevalence of hypertension, and Finland the highest. In the 1980s and early 1990s, treatment rates were at most 40% and control rates were less than 25% in most countries and age and sex groups. Over the time period assessed, hypertension awareness and treatment increased and control rate improved in all 12 countries, with South Korea and Germany experiencing the largest improvements. Most of the observed increase occurred in the 1990s and early-mid 2000s, having plateaued since in most countries. In their most recent surveys, Canada, Germany, South Korea, and the USA had the highest rates of awareness, treatment, and control, whereas Finland, Ireland, Japan, and Spain had the lowest. Even in the best performing countries, treatment coverage was at most 80% and control rates were less than 70%. Hypertension awareness, treatment, and control have improved substantially in high-income countries since the 1980s and 1990s. However, control rates have plateaued in the past decade, at levels lower than those in high-quality hypertension programmes. There is substantial variation across countries in the rates of hypertension awareness, treatment, and control. Wellcome Trust and WHO.

WHO has targeted that medicines to prevent recurrent cardiovascular disease be available in 80% of communities and used by 50% of eligible individuals by 2025. We have previously reported that use of these medicines is very low, but now aim to assess how such low use relates to their lack of availability or poor affordability. We analysed information about availability and costs of cardiovascular disease medicines (aspirin, β blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, and statins) in pharmacies gathered from 596 communities in 18 countries participating in the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study. Medicines were considered available if present at the pharmacy when surveyed, and affordable if their combined cost was less than 20% of household capacity-to-pay. We compared results from high-income, upper middle-income, lower middle-income, and low-income countries. Data from India were presented separately given its large, generic pharmaceutical industry. Communities were recruited between Jan 1, 2003, and Dec 31, 2013. All four cardiovascular disease medicines were available in 61 (95%) of 64 urban and 27 (90%) of 30 rural communities in high-income countries, 53 (80%) of 66 urban and 43 (73%) of 59 rural communities in upper middle-income countries, 69 (62%) of 111 urban and 42 (37%) of 114 rural communities in lower middle-income countries, eight (25%) of 32 urban and one (3%) of 30 rural communities in low-income countries (excluding India), and 34 (89%) of 38 urban and 42 (81%) of 52 rural communities in India. The four cardiovascular disease medicines were potentially unaffordable for 0·14% of households in high-income countries (14 of 9934 households), 25% of upper middle-income countries (6299 of 24 776), 33% of lower middle-income countries (13 253 of 40 023), 60% of low-income countries (excluding India; 1976 of 3312), and 59% households in India (9939 of 16 874). In low-income and middle-income countries, patients with previous cardiovascular disease were less likely to use all four medicines if fewer than four were available (odds ratio [OR] 0·16, 95% CI 0·04–0·57). In communities in which all four medicines were available, patients were less likely to use medicines if the household potentially could not afford them (0·16, 0·04–0·55). Secondary prevention medicines are unavailable and unaffordable for a large proportion of communities and households in upper middle-income, lower middle-income, and low-income countries, which have very low use of these medicines. Improvements to the availability and affordability of key medicines is likely to enhance their use and help towards achieving WHO's targets of 50% use of key medicines by 2025. Population Health Research Institute, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, AstraZeneca (Canada), Sanofi-Aventis (France and Canada), Boehringer Ingelheim (Germany and Canada), Servier, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, King Pharma, and national or local organisations in participating countries.

Lower extremity peripheral artery disease is the third leading cause of atherosclerotic cardiovascular morbidity, following coronary artery disease and stroke. This study provides the first comparison of the prevalence of peripheral artery disease between high-income countries (HIC) and low-income or middle-income countries (LMIC), establishes the primary risk factors for peripheral artery disease in these settings, and estimates the number of people living with peripheral artery disease regionally and globally. We did a systematic review of the literature on the prevalence of peripheral artery disease in which we searched for community-based studies since 1997 that defined peripheral artery disease as an ankle brachial index (ABI) lower than or equal to 0·90. We used epidemiological modelling to define age-specific and sex-specific prevalence rates in HIC and in LMIC and combined them with UN population numbers for 2000 and 2010 to estimate the global prevalence of peripheral artery disease. Within a subset of studies, we did meta-analyses of odds ratios (ORs) associated with 15 putative risk factors for peripheral artery disease to estimate their effect size in HIC and LMIC. We then used the risk factors to predict peripheral artery disease numbers in eight WHO regions (three HIC and five LMIC). 34 studies satisfied the inclusion criteria, 22 from HIC and 12 from LMIC, including 112 027 participants, of which 9347 had peripheral artery disease. Sex-specific prevalence rates increased with age and were broadly similar in HIC and LMIC and in men and women. The prevalence in HIC at age 45–49 years was 5·28% (95% CI 3·38–8·17%) in women and 5·41% (3·41–8·49%) in men, and at age 85–89 years, it was 18·38% (11·16–28·76%) in women and 18·83% (12·03–28·25%) in men. Prevalence in men was lower in LMIC than in HIC (2·89% [2·04–4·07%] at 45–49 years and 14·94% [9·58–22·56%] at 85–89 years). In LMIC, rates were higher in women than in men, especially at younger ages (6·31% [4·86–8·15%] of women aged 45–49 years). Smoking was an important risk factor in both HIC and LMIC, with meta-OR for current smoking of 2·72 (95% CI 2·39–3·09) in HIC and 1·42 (1·25–1·62) in LMIC, followed by diabetes (1·88 [1·66–2·14] vs 1·47 [1·29–1·68]), hypertension (1·55 [1·42–1·71] vs 1·36 [1·24–1·50]), and hypercholesterolaemia (1·19 [1·07–1·33] vs 1·14 [1·03–1·25]). Globally, 202 million people were living with peripheral artery disease in 2010, 69·7% of them in LMIC, including 54·8 million in southeast Asia and 45·9 million in the western Pacific Region. During the preceding decade the number of individuals with peripheral artery disease increased by 28·7% in LMIC and 13·1% in HIC. In the 21st century, peripheral artery disease has become a global problem. Governments, non-governmental organisations, and the private sector in LMIC need to address the social and economic consequences, and assess the best strategies for optimum treatment and prevention of this disease. Peripheral Arterial Disease Research Coalition (Europe).

PurposeA wide urban–rural income gap exists in China despite the implementation of pro-rural policies. Additionally, with the proliferation of the internet and information technology, the promotion effect of e-commerce on the economy has become apparent. Accordingly, China has been actively encouraging rural households to participate in e-commerce activities. This study aims to examine the effect of e-commerce on the urban–rural income gap.Design/methodology/approachIn the study, linear and panel threshold models were applied to provincial-level panel data from 2002 to 2018.FindingsThe results of the linear model show that e-commerce contributes to narrowing the urban–rural income gap. Moreover, the panel threshold model results show that the narrowing effect exists in regions where the e-commerce intensity is at a medium-to-high level and urbanization is at a relatively low level; otherwise, e-commerce has no effect. In addition, in regions with a relatively high level of public expenditure and education, the income-gap-narrowing effect of e-commerce is more than double.Practical implicationsThe urban–rural income gap can be reduced by promoting e-commerce and reducing the urban–rural divide in e-commerce use.Originality/valueTo determine how varying levels of e-commerce development affect the urban–rural income gap across regions, the study proposes four key causes of the digital divide in e-commerce: e-commerce intensity, public expenditure level, urbanization level and education level and applies the variables as threshold variables to examine the non-linear effect of e-commerce on the income gap.

To investigate the global incidence of prostate cancer with special attention to the changing age structures. Data regarding the cancer incidence and population statistics were retrieved from the International Agency for Research on Cancer in World Health Organization. Eight developing and developed jurisdictions in Asia and the Western countries were selected for global comparison. Time series were constructed based on the cancer incidence rates from 1988 to 2007. The incidence rate of the population aged ≥ 65 was adjusted by the increasing proportion of elderly population, and was defined as the \"aging-adjusted incidence rate\". Cancer incidence and population were then projected to 2030. The aging-adjusted incidence rates of prostate cancer in Asia (Hong Kong, Japan and China) and the developing Western countries (Costa Rica and Croatia) had increased progressively with time. In the developed Western countries (the United States, the United Kingdom and Sweden), we observed initial increases in the aging-adjusted incidence rates of prostate cancer, which then gradually plateaued and even decreased with time. Projections showed that the aging-adjusted incidence rates of prostate cancer in Asia and the developing Western countries were expected to increase in much larger extents than the developed Western countries.

A large body of research has found an association between short birth intervals and the risk of infant mortality in developing countries, but recent work on other perinatal outcomes from highly developed countries has called these claims into question, arguing that previous studies have failed to adequately control for unobserved heterogeneity. Our study addresses this issue by estimating within-family models on a sample of 4.5 million births from 77 countries at various levels of development. We show that after unobserved maternal heterogeneity is controlled for, intervals shorter than 36 months substantially increase the probability of infant death. However, the importance of birth intervals as a determinant of infant mortality varies inversely with maternal education and the strength of the relationship varies regionally. Finally, we demonstrate that the mortality-reducing effects of longer birth intervals are strong at low levels of development but decline steadily toward zero at higher levels of development. These findings offer a clear way to reconcile previous research showing that birth intervals are important for perinatal outcomes in lowincome countries but are much less consequential in high-income settings.