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Part I: Principles, Measurements, and the Health-Development Link
 

Chapter 1 - Principles
To grasp the fundamentals of global health, one must study key global health concepts:
Determinants of health, measurements of health status, importance of culture to health, global burden of disease, key risk factors for different health conditions, the organizations and functions of health systems, and the Demographic and Epidemiological Transitions


Chapter 2- Measurements
Determinants of Health: Physical environment, health behaviors, individual factors, access to health services, and social environment
Health Adjusted Life Expectancy (HALE) - composite health indicator that measures the equivalent number of years in full health that a newborn can expect to live, based on current rates of ill health and mortality
Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY) - composite measure of premature deaths and losses due to illnesses and disabilities in a population
Demographic Transition - the shift from high fertility and high mortality to low fertility and low mortality
Epidemiologic Transition - a shift in the pattern of disease from largely communicable diseases to non-communicable diseases


Chapter 3 - Health Development Link

Based on a number of studies and statistics...
 

Health & Education

  • health and education of parents affects the health and education of their children.

  • malnutrition and disease affect the cognitive development and nutrition of children.

  • education contributes to the prevention of illness.

Health & Productivity

  • good health increases longetivity; the longer one lives, the longer one can earn (higher lifetime earnings).

  • healthy workers are usually more productive than unhealthy workers.

  • health affects a person's earnings (those who are ill cannot go to work and often do not earn).

Health & Cost of Illness

  • costs include health care (treatment, drugs, etc.), transportation, loss of earnings.

  • chronic disabilities usually use a large amount of expenditure on health services.

Health & Equity

  • issues to consider include access to health services, how health systems are responsive to the population's needs, and fairness of financing of health systems.

  • the poor, disadvantaged ethnic minorities, people who live in remote areas, and women have less access to health services than others.

 

Link to developing countries
Patients can be pushed below their country's poverty line due to healthcare costs.

Better educated mothers are able to keep their children health, even without a safe water supply.
Children will stay out of school to aid in chores that a sick parent cannot do.
 

Questions & Ethics
Does "health make wealth" or does "wealth make health"?
Why do the poor receive a disproportionate (lower) share of public subsidies on hospital services?

 

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