Centre for Global Health Research

CGHR director featured as one of India’s leading global thinkers

editor — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:20:18 +0000

A national Indian newspaper, The Hindustan Times, has named Prof Prabhat Jha as one of the leading global thinkers of Indian origin.

Check out the feature here: Thinking Heads.

Feature article in UofT Magazine

editor — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:44:17 +0000

Check out this feature article about Professor Prabhat Jha and the Centre for Global Health Research in the latest issue of UofT Magazine: Saving lives, one death at a time

CGHR paper wins 2011 Albie Award!

editor — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:08:53 +0000

The recent CGHR paper on selective abortions in India, published in The Lancet last May, has received a 2011 Albie Award from Foreign Policy magazine. The Albie is named after renowned political economist, Albert Hirschman, and the award was created to recognize “the best writing in global political economy”. While the writing platforms can vary (e.g., journal article, blog post, traditional book), the Albies honour exceptional writing that makes the reader “reconsider how the world works”.

Read the full story here: Announcing the 2011 Albies!!

Tobacco tax reform needed to curb corruption and increase revenue while saving lives in India

editor — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:08:11 +0000

New research published in the October 15^th issue of Economic & Political Weekly shows that tobacco tax increases in India from 7% to 33% on bidis and from 43% to 58% on cigarettes would lead to 14 million smokers quitting and 27 million children never starting to smoke. This translates to 69 million years of saved healthy life over the next 40 years. The article is led by Professor Prabhat Jha, Centre for Global Health Research, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Canada.

Researchers contend that India’s relatively high tobacco consumption is partly the result of historically low or non-existent taxes on bidis, and an inefficient, complex taxation system on cigarettes. Authors state that the major consequences of this “chaotic tax structure” include: 1) increased tobacco consumption; 2) difficulty adjusting for income growth and inflation; 3) marked variation in tobacco taxes by cigarette length, allowing the industry to distribute cigarettes of various lengths to minimize the effects of any tax increase; 4) increased corruption and tax evasion due to the difficulty of enforcing the complex tax structure; and 5) a far less predictable revenue stream for government.

Study authors argue that these unwieldy systems should be reformed to more efficiently deter smoking in the country and provide an increase in annual tax revenue of about 1.2%. Specific recommendations for the Government of India include implementing a tobacco control strategy that uses research and policy regulation to curb consumption, and adopting higher, more effective levels of taxation on bidis and cigarettes that adjust for annual inflation.

Read the full article here: A Rational Taxation System of Bidis and Cigarettes to Reduce Smoking Deaths in India

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CGHR looking for a new Research Assistant

editor — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 16:32:35 +0000

CGHR is looking for a qualified Research Assistant to join our Toronto team! Click on our Opportunities tab to see full details.

Use of female sex workers in India: PLoS One article

editor — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 15:18:31 +0000

There was an estimated 1.4 to 1.6 million people living with HIV in India in 2006. HIV transmission in India usually occurs through heterosexual contact, and is driven by male use of female sex workers (FSWs). While previous studies have examined the HIV risk behaviours of FSWs, few have studied the male use of FSWs in India. This new CGHR study published in PLoS One investigates patterns of non-regular sex partners and use of FSWs by 15-49 year old men in the general Indian population.

The study found that 4% of all men in India (about 8.5 million) used FSWs in the previous year, with married men representing more than half of all FSW clients. The use of FSWs was higher among men in high-HIV states, and the risk of sex worker use rose with increasing numbers of non-regular partners in the past year. Authors suggest that interventions targeting FSWs would be the most efficient strategy for curbing heterosexual HIV transmission in India.

Read full article here: Male use of female sex work in India: a nationally representative behavioural survey

PLoS One Article (PDF)

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New posting at CGHR for a GIS Technician

editor — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 20:05:31 +0000

CGHR is now looking for a qualified GIS Technician to join our Toronto team! If you’re interested, please click on our Opportunities tab for the full job posting.

WHO Bulletin: Deaths from unintentional falls in India

editor — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:37:07 +0000

In a recent study published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, it was revealed that falls accounted for 25% of all unintentional injury deaths in India. Unintentional falls were also found to disproportionately affect older women and children. Authors conclude that this is a major public health problem and more study needs to take place to better understand the consequences of such falls, and to help prevent them.

Read full article here: Childhood and adult mortality from unintentional falls in India

WHO Article (PDF)

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CGHR launches new website

james — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 11:00:42 +0000

CGHR has redesigned its website for easier navigation. Browsing projects, publications, researcher profiles and news about the Centre should now be up-to-date and easy to find. You can also keep track of us through RSS, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

Feel free to explore! Any feedback would be welcome at wongans@smh.ca. (Please note that if you’re having trouble viewing the site, try updating your internet browser.)

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Selective abortion may account for up to 12 million missing girls in India

james — Tue, 24 May 2011 02:00:41 +0000

A new international study has found that selective abortion of girls in India has been increasing, and may account for up to 12 million missing girls over the last three decades.

Led by the Centre for Global Health Research (CGHR), the study examined 250,000 births from the National Family Health Surveys in India over 15 years, focusing on the sex ratios (number of girls born per 1000 boys) for the second child in the family. Researchers found that in households with a daughter as the first child, the sex ratio for the second child dropped to 906 girls for every 1000 boys in 1990 and a mere 836 girls per 1000 boys in 2005. By contrast, sex ratios in households where the first child was a son were not unusual.

The study found that selective abortion of girls is more common in wealthy households, and among women with at least 10 years of education. Furthermore, selective abortions appear to have spread across the country. In 1991, only 10% of the Indian population lived in states where the sex ratios for children under 6 years old were 915 girls per 1000 boys. In 2001, this percentage rose to 27%, and in 2011, it was staggering 56%.

Read full article here: Trends in selective abortion of girls in India

The Lancet Article (PDF)
The Lancet Webappendix (PDF)
Frequently Asked Questions (PDF)
PowerPoint Slides (PPT)
District-Level Sex Ratios: 2001 and 2011 (XLS)

The Lancet Press Release
English (PDF)
Hindi (PDF)

Video News Release
English
Hindi

Images for Media
Download (Zip Archive)

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