Une singularité de la santé publique

From 1965 to 1978, the mortality rate of adults of work age rose in awll central and eastern European countries. The exposure to "risk factors" (alcohol, tobacco), the most frequently advanced explanation, throws responsibility onto individuals and their habits. This explanation meets up with the contradictory evidence of an "avoidable" mortality linked to the health-care system. By definition, cases of avoidable mortality have an institutional dimension that reaches beyond personal behavior. According to WHO data, the level of such mortality is higher in Hungary than elsewhere. This underlies the hypothesis that the national health system carries responsibility. Heart-related illnesses are examined since, everywhere, they rank among the major causes of mortality. Since the 1980s, medical progress has led to a sharp drop in this cause of mortality. This positive effect has occurred in Hungary too, but to a lesser degree and at a later date because the operation of the health system limited the diffusion of innovations. The conjecture is made that this slow diffusion can be blamed on the under-the-counter medicine, which Hungarians call the "gratitude money". Owing to corruption and a lack of motivation among health-care providers, patients hold off before visiting a doctor, whence the belated care. All this inexorably limits the Hungarian patient's chances for survival, and as much can be said about the other countries in central and eastern Europe

Health care · Political science · Sociology · Demography · Global Health Care Issues · Law · Medicine

• About Some 19th-Century Theories of Suicide

  Open Access•Cristina Bradatan•International Journal of…•2007

  Add to list