Global Health

Part III: The Burden of Disease (continued) 
 

Chapter 9 - Women's Health
"Being born female is dangerous to your health." - Elaine Murphy, Psychologist

The determinants of a woman's health are influenced by biological and social factors. Gender is essentially cultural; it involves societal norms about the roles of women and their social position relative to men. Because many societies favor males, women's inferior statuses leads to social, health, and economical problems that men do not face. In a number of cultures, especially in India and China,  families prefer boys as their first child and often resort to aborting females. Female infants are often breastfed less than boys and are fed less complementary food when they become toddlers. Furthermore, high levels of depression are associated with women who have low status positions, come from low-income populations, and low education. Women also face biological risks. For example, women alone get ovarian cancer. Women are also biologically more susceptible to several STDs, including HIV/AIDS. Overall, most health issues women face are determined by a combination of biological and social determinants. 

Several health disparities that women are subjected to include different exposure to disease and injuries, discriminatory medical practices, biases in health systems, and biased health research. 

 

Women's health deserves more detailed attention because women in many countries face a number of specific and serious health problems, there are unacceptable differences in the health of men and women in a large number of countries, and women play especially important roles in their families (poor health has negative consequences on families and children). Most importantly, many investments in improving the health of women would result, at relatively low cost, in a substantial number of deaths and DALYs averted. 

Some critical issues in women's health include sex-selective abortions, nutrition, maternal mortality, unsafe abortions, domestic violence, and sexually transmitted diseases. Improving women's health will require that health systems reduce the biases and provide a cost-effective package of services. Changing the way we address women's health will surely help us towards fulfilling the MDG goal of empowering women. 

 

Chapter 10 - Child Health
The leading causes of disease, disability, and death in children under five years of age are asphyxia, diarrhea, hookworm, malaria, pertussis, pneumonia, polio, sepsis, and tetanus. 

Global health researchers categorize four different phases of the lives of young children:

• Perinatal - first week of a child's life

• Neonatal - first month of a child's life

• Infant - first year of a child's life

• Under-five - children who are 0 to 4 years of age
   

Communicable diseases are the leading cause of death for children in developing countries. 
There are varying levels of child illnesses and death in different parts of the same country due to levels of poverty, education, and other social services in a region. Most illness and death among young children is due to multiple diseases/illnessses combined with malnutrition. 
A child's health is intertwined with the income of the family and the mother's educational level. 

In the absence of additional income or health services, families in developing countries can still keep their children healthy by knowing and practicing about appropriate hygiene behaviors, appropriate nutrition practices, home management of illness, and when to seek care from health services. 

The main challenge facing global health researchers is figuring out a way to help disadvantaged families and communities in developing countries quickly get the information and the resources that they need to engage in safer, more productive behaviors on a large scale, in coordination with improved health services and improvements to water and sanitation. 
 

Link to developing countries
Females are the least healthy compared to males in the Southeast Asian region. 

Statistics show that violence against women in low-income countries has a significant cost on a country's GDP. 

By contrast with reducing the death of children between 1 and 5 years, little progress has been achieved in reducing the death of neonates. 
Many poor families in developing countries have more children to "compensate" for the number of children born to them that will die. 
 

Questions & Ethics
How will impoverished communities change the perception that they have of female roles and the value they put on women's health? (i.e. can they put greater emphasis on the health of females as people instead of the health of females as women who give birth?)
Should countries like China continue to implement the one-child policy per family?