Variations in practice quality in five low-income countries: a conceptual overview.
Country studies from Indonesia, Tanzania, India, Paraguay, and Mexico document the quality of medical advice and variation in practice quality across a number of dimensions. This overview paper serves three purposes. First, the studies use several different measures; we contextualize these measures and discuss how they relate to each other. Second, we propose a three-way decomposition to analyze variations in the quality of care. These variations can arise from inequalities in access, inequalities in choices, or inequalities arising from discrimination. We discuss common elements across the studies and draw policy implications for future research and advocacy.
Das
Jishnu
J
Development Research Group, World Bank, Washington, DC, USA. jdas1@worldbank.org
Gertler
Paul J
PJ
D002983:Clinical Competence; D003906:Developing Countries; D006291:Health Policy; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007214:Indonesia; D008800:Mexico; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D010239:Paraguay; D011203:Poverty; D011287:Prejudice; D017149:Private Sector; D017150:Public Sector; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D013636:Tanzania