August 2010

The Editorial this month argues for the need to fundamentally rethink how societies can look beyond the "medical" causes of disease in an effort to promote health and well-being. This follows a systematic review and a meta-analysis by Julianne Holt-Lunstad and colleagues published in PLoS Medicine in July finding that individuals' social relationships have as much influence on mortality risk as other well-established risk factors for mortality, such as smoking. Such a level of risk deserves attention at the highest possible level in determination of health policy, says the Editorial. Despite the fact that many governments have decided to cut to public spending drastically in order to reduce deficits, findings such as those by Holt-Lunstad and colleagues offer an opportunity to reorganize services to meet the needs of an increasingly complex society.

Image Credit: Shahram Sharif

Editorial

Social Relationships Are Key to Health, and to Health Policy

The PLoS Medicine Editors

PLOS Medicine: published August 31, 2010 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000334

Essays

Assessing Strategy and Equity in the Elimination of Malaria

Naman K. Shah

PLOS Medicine: published August 3, 2010 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000312

Harnessing Health IT for Improved Cardiovascular Risk Management

Sue Wells, Robyn Whittaker, Enid Dorey, Chris Bullen

PLOS Medicine: published August 24, 2010 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000313

Health in Action

Using Touchscreen Electronic Medical Record Systems to Support and Monitor National Scale-Up of Antiretroviral Therapy in Malawi

Gerald P. Douglas, Oliver J. Gadabu, Sabine Joukes, Soyapi Mumba, Michael V. McKay, Anne Ben-Smith, Andreas Jahn, Erik J. Schouten, Zach Landis Lewis, Joep J. van Oosterhout, Theresa J. Allain, Rony Zachariah, Selma D. Berger, Anthony D. Harries, Frank Chimbwandira

PLOS Medicine: published August 10, 2010 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000319

Policy Forums

Ecology: A Prerequisite for Malaria Elimination and Eradication

Heather M. Ferguson, Anna Dornhaus, Arlyne Beeche, Christian Borgemeister, Michael Gottlieb, Mir S. Mulla, John E. Gimnig, Durland Fish, Gerry F. Killeen

PLOS Medicine: published August 3, 2010 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000303

Will Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Widen Health Inequalities?

Simon Capewell, Hilary Graham

PLOS Medicine: published August 24, 2010 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000320

Challenges in Developing Evidence-Based Recommendations Using the GRADE Approach: The Case of Mental, Neurological, and Substance Use Disorders

Corrado Barbui, Tarun Dua, Mark van Ommeren, M. Taghi Yasamy, Alexandra Fleischmann, Nicolas Clark, Graham Thornicroft, Suzanne Hill, Shekhar Saxena

PLOS Medicine: published August 31, 2010 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000322

The Costs and Underappreciated Consequences of Research Misconduct: A Case Study

Arthur M. Michalek, Alan D. Hutson, Camille P. Wicher, Donald L. Trump

PLOS Medicine: published August 17, 2010 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000318

Research Articles

An Intervention to Reduce HIV Risk Behavior of Substance-Using Men Who Have Sex with Men: A Two-Group Randomized Trial with a Nonrandomized Third Group

Gordon Mansergh, Beryl A. Koblin, David J. McKirnan, Sharon M. Hudson, Stephen A. Flores, Ryan E. Wiegand, David W. Purcell, Grant N. Colfax, for the Project MIX Study Team

PLOS Medicine: published August 24, 2010 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000329

The Effect of Raltegravir Intensification on Low-level Residual Viremia in HIV-Infected Patients on Antiretroviral Therapy: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Rajesh T. Gandhi, Lu Zheng, Ronald J. Bosch, Ellen S. Chan, David M. Margolis, Sarah Read, Beatrice Kallungal, Sarah Palmer, Kathy Medvik, Michael M. Lederman, Nadia Alatrakchi, Jeffrey M. Jacobson, Ann Wiegand, Mary Kearney, John M. Coffin, John W. Mellors, Joseph J. Eron, on behalf of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group A5244 team

PLOS Medicine: published August 10, 2010 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000321

Rapid Scaling Up of Insecticide-Treated Bed Net Coverage in Africa and Its Relationship with Development Assistance for Health: A Systematic Synthesis of Supply, Distribution, and Household Survey Data

Abraham D. Flaxman, Nancy Fullman, Mac W. Otten Jr, Manoj Menon, Richard E. Cibulskis, Marie Ng, Christopher J. L. Murray, Stephen S. Lim

PLOS Medicine: published August 17, 2010 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000328

Reducing Plasmodium falciparum Malaria Transmission in Africa: A Model-Based Evaluation of Intervention Strategies

Jamie T. Griffin, T. Deirdre Hollingsworth, Lucy C. Okell, Thomas S. Churcher, Michael White, Wes Hinsley, Teun Bousema, Chris J. Drakeley, Neil M. Ferguson, María-Gloria Basáñez, Azra C. Ghani

PLOS Medicine: published August 10, 2010 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000324

Impact of Community-Based Maternal Health Workers on Coverage of Essential Maternal Health Interventions among Internally Displaced Communities in Eastern Burma: The MOM Project

Luke C. Mullany, Thomas J. Lee, Lin Yone, Catherine I. Lee, Katherine C. Teela, Palae Paw, Eh Kalu Shwe Oo, Cynthia Maung, Heather Kuiper, Nicole F. Masenior, Chris Beyrer

PLOS Medicine: published August 3, 2010 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000317

Quantifying the Impoverishing Effects of Purchasing Medicines: A Cross-Country Comparison of the Affordability of Medicines in the Developing World

Laurens M. Niëns, Alexandra Cameron, Ellen Van de Poel, Margaret Ewen, Werner B. F. Brouwer, Richard Laing

PLOS Medicine: published August 31, 2010 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000333

Physical Activity Attenuates the Genetic Predisposition to Obesity in 20,000 Men and Women from EPIC-Norfolk Prospective Population Study

Shengxu Li, Jing Hua Zhao, Jian'an Luan, Ulf Ekelund, Robert N. Luben, Kay-Tee Khaw, Nicholas J. Wareham, Ruth J. F. Loos

PLOS Medicine: published August 31, 2010 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000332

Moving from Data on Deaths to Public Health Policy in Agincourt, South Africa: Approaches to Analysing and Understanding Verbal Autopsy Findings

Peter Byass, Kathleen Kahn, Edward Fottrell, Mark A. Collinson, Stephen M. Tollman

PLOS Medicine: published August 17, 2010 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000325

Cover

Social Relationships: Key to Health and Health Policy.