Inequality in the distribution of ear, nose and throat specialists in 15 Latin American countries: an ecological study
Journal
BMJ Open
ISSN
2044-6055
2044-6055
Date Issued
2019
Author(s)
Tess Bright
Oscar J Mújica
Jacqueline Ramke
Claudia M Moreno
Amarilis Melendez
Ericka Lara Ovares
Edgar Ivan Sandoval Domingues
Diego Jose Santana Hernandez
Shelly Chadha
Juan Carlos Silva
Augusto Peñaranda
Type
Resource Types::text::journal::journal article
URL Institutional Repository
Abstract
<jats:sec><jats:title>Objective</jats:title><jats:p>To explore sociogeographical inequalities in the availability and distribution of ear, nose and throat specialists (ENTs) in 15 Latin American (LA) countries.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Design</jats:title><jats:p>Ecological.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Setting</jats:title><jats:p>Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries of LA.</jats:p><jats:p>The number of registered ENTs in 2017 was obtained from the National ENT Society in each country.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Outcome measures</jats:title><jats:p>The ENT rate/million population was calculated at the national and subnational (eg, state) level. Three measures were calculated to assess subnational distributive inequality of ENTs: (1) absolute and (2) relative index of dissimilarity; and (3) concentration index (using the Human Development Index as the equity stratifier). Finally, the ratio of ENTs/million population in the capital area compared with the rest of the country was calculated.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>There was more than a 30-fold difference in the number of ENTs/million population across the included countries—from 61.0 in Argentina (95% CI 58.7 to 63.4) to 2.8 in Guatemala (95% CI 2.1 to 3.8). In all countries, ENTs were more prevalent in advantaged areas and in capital areas. To attain distributive equality, Paraguay would need to redistribute the greatest proportion of its ENT workforce (67.3%; 95% CI 57.8% to 75.6%) and Brazil the least (18.5%; 95% CI 17.6% to 19.5%).</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>There is high inequality in the number and distribution of ENTs between and within the 15 studied countries in LA. This evidence can be used to inform policies that improve access to ear and hearing services in the region, such as scale-up of training of ENTs and incentives to distribute specialists equally. These actions to reduce inequities, alongside addressing the social determinants of ear and hearing health, are essential to realise Universal Health Coverage.</jats:p></jats:sec>
Subjects
workforce considerations
;
hearing impairment
;
populations
;
health workforce
;
healthcare disparities
;
humans
;
latin america
;
otorhinolaryngologic diseases
;
primary health care
;
specialization
;
argentina
;
article
;
brazil
;
controlled study
;
guatemala
;
health care policy
;
health equity
;
health insurance
;
hearing
;
human
;
human development
;
otorhinolaryngology
;
outcome assessment
;
paraguay
;
rest
;
scale up
;
social determinants of health
;
workforce
;
ear nose throat disease
;
health care disparity
;
primary health care
;
south and central america
;
specialization