23-11-21 - Introduction to Global Health

Question 1

Learning outcomes

Answer 1

• Describe the scope of global health
• Identify the key drivers in the global health agenda
• Describe the nature of global health inequities
• Describe the role of globalisation in (global) health

Question 2

What is global health?

Answer 2

• The international, transdisciplinary, and intersectoral research, knowledge, and policies for improving population health and health determinants on a planetary scale.
• It sets health equity, sustainable development, and efficiency as worldwide priorities; focuses on transregional health issues; and seeks to influence systemic causal pathways and policies.
• Sustainable development is development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Question 3

What is the:
•	Geographical reach
•	Level of cooperation
•	Individuals or populations
•	Access to health
•	Range of disciplines 
•	Regarding global health

Answer 3

Question 4

How is global burden of disease measured?

Answer 4

• Global burden of disease is measured in Disability Adjusted-Life Years (DALYS)
• One DALY can be thought of as one lost year of health life
• DALY = Years of Life Lost (YLL) + Years Lost due to Disability (YLD)
• Years of Life Lost (YLL) = Mortality
• Years Lost due to Disability (YLD) = Morbidity (pathology)

Question 5

What do QALYs and DALYs use?

What is disability?

Answer 5

• QALYs and DALYs use a utility measure
• 1 = perfect health
• 0 = death
• Less than 0 = worse than death
• Disability is when you are not in perfect health, but not dead either (Utility = between 0 and 1)

Question 6

What are drivers of global health?

Answer 6

Question 7

What are 4 challenges of Global Health?

What are 3 benefits of global health?

Answer 7

• Challenges of global health:

1) Population growth fuels resource competition and food price rises
2) Already challenged infrastructures struggle to cope
3) Tribal and ethnic tensions may increase and violence may result
4) Devastating effects on specialist local communities may lead to exploitation

• Benefits of Global Health

1) Economic developments lift people out of poverty
2) Opportunities for education and participation
3) Usually results in improvements in health

Question 8

What are 5 motivations for global health policy?

Answer 8

1) As foreign policy
• Using global health policies to increase positive worldwide reputation and exert political influence, forging alliances with countries where they have strategic interests

2) As security
• Health policy seeks to protect ones own population focusing mainly on communicable diseases that threaten this population.
• Only diseases of poor countries that pose a potential threat on citizens of rich countries matter.

3) As charity
• Promotion of health as a key element in the fight against poverty

4) As investment
• Use of health as a means of maximising economic development

5) As public health
• Seeks to decrease the worldwide burden of disease, with priority given to those risk factors and diseases that make the greatest contribution to this burden