Health policy and systems research agendas in developing countries

Table 5 Ranking of Topics in the Reference List and Differences by Income Region and by Project Initiation

RANK	TOPIC	INCOME REGION			PROJECT INITIATION
		Low	Lower Middle	Upper Middle	Donors	Govnt.	Research Institution
1	Sector Analysis				--	-
2	Disease burden					--
3	Management & organization		+				--
4	Accessibility	+			+	--	--
	Programme evaluation						--
	Research to evidence			-		-	+
5	Financing	-	++			++	--
	Human resources		+
6	Community participation			-	+	+	++
	Costing & cost effectiveness	--	+		+	+++
	Decentralisation/local health systems	-		+++		+
	Information, Education and Communication				+
	Insurance	--	+++	-			+
	Pharmaceutical policy & management
	Quality					+
7	Equity	-		+++	+		+++
	Policy process	-		+++
8	Economic policy and health	-	+		+		+
	Information systems				+	+

Cells with a rank difference of 1, 0 or -1 are blank. Changes of 4 or more = +++; 3 = ++; 2 = +; -2 = -; -3 = --; -4 or more = ---

ISSN: 1478-4505