Health integration across international borders: An integrative review

Abstract

Objective: Evidence the types and goal of the healthcare integration agreements in international border regions. Methods: Integrative literature review, in which studies published between 2006 and 2015 were selected that were indexed in the electronic databases CINAHL, Clinics Collection, LILACS, MEDLINE, PubMed, Scopus and SocINDEX. Thirteen studies were included. Results: The results demonstrate that formal and informal integration agreements exist in border regions, formalized by federal governments or international laws. The prevalent goals of these agreements are monitoring, disease detection and control in border regions. Conclusion: The agreements studied aim for cooperation to cope with regional difficulties. The integration actions tend to minimize the health asymmetries of border populations.