Health Equity Lens Embedded in the Public Health Policies of Saudi Arabia: A Qualitative Document Analysis

Karlsson, Leena Eklund; Ikonen, Anne Leena; Alqahtani, Kothar M.M.; Andersen, Pernille Tanggaard; Thapa, Subash

doi:10.1177/2158244020962776

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 50 publications

(72 reference statements)

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“…While the term "equity" is part of the health Law of Governance in the Kingdom, there is no standard term for equity in Arabic. Health equity is a concept that has not been used traditionally or de ned in health policy documents in Saudi Arabia (20).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

WITHDRAWN: Assessing Equity in Unmet Needs for Non-Communicable Diseases Services in Saudi Arabia Using a National Household Survey (2019)

Al-Attas

Gordon

Sabin

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Background: Saudi Arabia is implementing a comprehensive health system transformation in health services provision, governance, and financing that was announced in 2016. Given the high burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), a key objective of the transformation is to integrate NCD prevention and treatment into primary care. The study objectives are to assess primary care service use for treatment of NCDs, to quantify existing inequities in preventive services utilization, and to identify regional and socioeconomic factors associated with these inequities. Methods: Using the 2019 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia World Health Survey, multivariable logistic regression models were conducted to identify significant predictors of utilization of primary care services for prevention and treatment of NCDs, unmet health care needs among those who reported a diagnosis of diabetes, hypertension, or dyslipidemia, and breast and cervical cancer screenings. Results: Among those who reported having an NCD diagnosis, living in a high-income household was associated with a lower probability of having an unmet need in comparison to those living in lower-income households. Furthermore, adults residing in rural areas were less likely to have an unmet need compared to residents in urban areas (OR 0.58, p=0.029). Not perceiving a need for healthcare within the last 12 months was associated with three times the probability of unmet need in comparison to those with a subjective need for healthcare (p<0.001). All regions had lower probability of ever having a mammogram when compared to the central regions around Riyadh. Women who had more than a secondary level of education had five times the odds of undergoing cervical cancer screening and three times the likelihood of ever having a mammogram (P=0.012, p=0.02). Middle (OR 1.99, P=0.026), upper middle (OR 3.47, p<0.001), and high-income households (OR 2.59, p<0.001) had increased probability of having a cervical cancer screening compared to lower-income households. Conclusions: Inequities in NCD treatment and prevention services’ utilization in Saudi Arabia are strongly associated with region of living, population density, wealth, income, education and perceived need for health care. More research is needed to better understand the extent of unmet primary care needs for NCD and how to address the underlying contributing factors to access inequities.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

WITHDRAWN: Assessing Equity in Unmet Needs for Non-Communicable Diseases Services in Saudi Arabia Using a National Household Survey (2019)

Al-Attas

Gordon

Sabin

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Two types of policy document analysis have been applied to the health research field. For instance, some scholars used qualitative document analysis to discuss the equity embedded in public health policies [ 61 , 62 ]. Other scholars have applied bibliometric analysis, a quantitative method widely used in literature review research, to characterize the evolution of health-related policies [ 63 , 64 ].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing the Dynamic Evolution of Interagency Collaborative Decision-Making Networks in Response to COVID-19 in China: A Policy Document Analysis

Cheng

Zheng

et al. 2022

Healthcare

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Collaborative decision-making across multiple government agencies is considered a critical and effective strategy to combat public health crisis; however, we know little about how the collaborative decision-making works and evolves during periods of crisis. To fill this lacuna, this study uncovers the structure and evolving dynamics of the network by employing a policy document analysis. Based on the policy documents, jointly issued by the agencies of Chinese central government in four phases regarding COVID-19 control, we first constructed a co-occurrence matrix of policy-issuing agencies to outline the network structure, then drew a breadth–depth matrix to identify the role evolution of agencies, and lastly built a two-mode network consisting of policy topics and agencies to determine the evolution mechanisms of policy attentions for each agency. It was found that the network structure of interagency collaboration involves three forms: discrete structure in the early phase, subgroup structure in the middle phase, and connected structure in the latter phase. Agencies embedded in the network can be categorized into three types: leading agencies, key agencies, and auxiliary agencies, with their constituent members changed as the pandemic risks are gradually becoming under control. Furthermore, each type has its own primary policy attentions, but shares some common foci in all four phases and shifts attention in the emergency management process. This study contributes to shedding light on the formation of and variations in collaborative networks in health emergencies and provides policy implications for other countries that have struggled against COVID-19.

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“…For example, Jalam et al (2020) analyzed relevant policy document on Nigeria's desertification control via QDA, and found that the integration of sustainable practice across the policy cycle is responsible for the participation of civil society organizations. Also, QDA on twenty health-related policy documents in Saudi Arabia indicated that inequity of healthcare in Saudi Arabia was quite serious, but lacked suggestions to improve health equity ( Eklund Karlsson et al, 2020 ). To evaluate the implementation of national health policy for primary health care, Dominguez-Cancino et al (2020) analyzed thirteen primary health care policy documents in Chile via QDA.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing the patterns of China's policies against COVID-19: A bibliometric study

Wang

et al. 2021

Information Processing & Management

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Since the beginning of 2020, the Chinese government has implemented substantial policies to prevent and control the COVID-19 epidemic. This research attempts to reveal and characterize the patterns of China's policy against COVID-19. Bibliometric methods are applied for studying policy evolution, with the aim of discovering the transitions of the policies over time, the collaborations among policy makers, and the effects of the policies. A total of 366 policies of epidemic prevention are collected. Policy topic shifting, the cooperation of policy-issuing agencies, and the policy content of agencies are analyzed. According to the results, China's policies are implemented in four stages. Moreover, the policy's foci against COVID-19 shifted from medical support in the early stage to economic development in the late stage. Agencies involved in the policymaking can be categorized into three types: leading agencies, key agencies, and auxiliary agencies, with their corresponding administrative influence ranked in this order. Especially, the Chinese government adopted a multi-agency, joint epidemic prevention and control mechanism to ensure the efficiency of the policymaking cooperation. Furthermore, aside from ensuring cooperation among the policy-issuing agencies, they each had their own primary focus of policies in the early stage, but their foci were gradually shared as the epidemic situation changed. This research reveals how China responded to the public health emergency of COVID-19 from the perspective of policy making.

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Health Equity Lens Embedded in the Public Health Policies of Saudi Arabia: A Qualitative Document Analysis

Cited by 5 publications

References 50 publications

WITHDRAWN: Assessing Equity in Unmet Needs for Non-Communicable Diseases Services in Saudi Arabia Using a National Household Survey (2019)

WITHDRAWN: Assessing Equity in Unmet Needs for Non-Communicable Diseases Services in Saudi Arabia Using a National Household Survey (2019)

Characterizing the Dynamic Evolution of Interagency Collaborative Decision-Making Networks in Response to COVID-19 in China: A Policy Document Analysis

Characterizing the patterns of China's policies against COVID-19: A bibliometric study

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