ArticlePediatric surgery international2021
A critical threshold for global pediatric surgical workforce density.
Article in Pediatric surgery international, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Telemedicine for educating parents or caregivers for postoperative care of pediatric patients: a systematic review.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
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- Survey of pediatric solid tumor care in economically underdeveloped regions of China.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Management and Outcomes of Anorectal Malformations at University Teaching Hospital of Kigali, Rwanda from 2015 to 2023.Research square · 2025Article
- Medicine availability and affordability for paediatric cancers, China.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2025Article
- Review
- Frequency of splenectomy for pediatric splenic injury in Brazil: a retrospective analysis.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2024Article
- Ten Years Analysis of Parental Counselling-in-Continuum in Paediatric Surgery: Psychosocial and Medico-legal Outcome.African journal of paediatric surgery : AJPS · 2024Article
- Pediatric Surgery Workforce Around the World: A Need to Revise Residency Programs?Global pediatric health · 2024Article
- Achieving Surgical, Obstetric, Trauma, and Anesthesia (SOTA) care for all in South Asia.Frontiers in public health · 2024Review
- Providing paediatric surgery in low-resource countries.BMJ paediatrics open · 2023Article
- Prioritization of surgical, obstetric, trauma, and anesthesia care in India over seven decades: A systematic analysis of policy documents.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- Critical shortage of capacity to deliver safe paediatric surgery in sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from 67 hospitals in Malawi, Zambia, and Tanzania.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2023Article
- Evaluation of the regional distribution of the pediatric surgery workforce and surgical load in Brazil.World journal of pediatric surgery · 2023Article
- The Global Initiative for Children's Surgery: conception, gestation, and delivery.Pediatric surgery international · 2022Review
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purpose1.7 billion children lack access to surgical care, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). The pediatric surgical workforce density (PSWD), an indicator of surgical access, correlates with survival of complex pediatric surgical problems. To determine if PSWD also correlates with population-level health outcomes for children, we compared PSWD with pediatric-specific mortality rates and determined the PSWD associated with improved survival.
methodsUsing medical licensing registries, pediatric surgeons practicing in 26 countries between 2015 and 2019 were identified. Countries' PSWD was calculated as the ratio of pediatric surgeons per 100,000 children. The correlation between neonatal, infant and under 5 mortality rates and PSWD was assessed using Spearman's correlations and piecewise linear regression models.
resultsFour LIC, eight L-MIC, ten UMIC and four HIC countries, containing 420 million children, were analyzed. The median PSWD by income group was 0.03 (LIC), 0.12 (L-MIC), 1.34 (UMIC) and 2.13 (HIC). PSWD strongly correlated with neonatal (0.78, p < 0.001), infant (0.82, p < 0.001) and under 5 (0.83, p < 0.001) mortality rates. Survival improved with increasing PSWD to a threshold of 0.37.
conclusionPSWD correlates with pediatric population mortality rates, with significant improvements in survival with PSWD > 0.37. Currently, PSWD in LMICs is inadequate to meet UN Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 for child mortality.
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