Practicing Public Health
Order Instructions:
Introduction
Upon reflection of this course, consider what you can do as a social change agent and scholar-practitioner. This class has challenged you to think beyond the individual-level influences of biology, behavior, and harmful organisms to embrace a broader perspective on health for populations. You have repeatedly seen how social determinants influence health of populations. That understanding carries an implicit challenge: What can you do as a scholar-practitioner?
Objectives
Students will:
• Compare two countries and their health problems
• Compare social and economic determinants for countries
• Analyze relationship between social and economic determinants in countries
Discussion, examine countries and their health problems.
A brief summary comparing the two countries and their health problems. Also, compare how the economic level and income inequality in each country influenced other social determinants (social dynamics, the status of women, education, or violence/homicide, etc.) for each country. Then, explain the impact of the determinants on the health outcome in each country. Expand on your insights utilizing the Learning Resources.
Please use a least 6 or the Articles below:
1. Wilkinson, R., & Pickett, K. (2010). The spirit level: Why greater equality makes societies stronger. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Press.
-Chapter 10, “Violence: Gaining Respect” (pp. 129–144)
-Chapter 16, “Building the Future” (pp. 235–272)
2. Coovadia, H., Jewkes, R., Barron, P., Sanders, D., & McIntyre, D. (2009). The health and health system of South Africa: Historical roots of current public health challenges. Lancet, 374(9692), 817–834.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
3. Biggs, B., King, L., Basu, S., & Stuckler, D. (2010). Is wealthier always healthier? The impact of national income level, inequality, and poverty on public health in Latin America. Social Science & Medicine, 71(2), 266–273.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
4. Kyobutungi, C., Egondi, T., & Ezeh, A. (2010). The health and well-being of older people in Nairobi’s slums. Global Health Action, 3, 45–53.
Retrieved from Walden Library databases.
5. Norman, R., Schneider, M., Bradshaw, D., Jewkes, R., Abrahams, N., Matzopoulos, R., & Vos, T. (2010). Interpersonal violence: An important risk factor for disease and injury in South Africa. Population Health Metrics, 8, 32–43.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
6. Rudan, I., Kapiriri, L., Tomlinson, M., Balliet, M., Cohen, B., & Chopra, M. (2010). Evidence-based priority setting for health care and research: Tools to support policy in maternal, neonatal, and child health in Africa. PLoS Medicine, 7(7), 1–5.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
7. Shelton, J. D., Cassell, M. M., & Adetunji, J. (2005). Is poverty or wealth at the root of HIV? Lancet, 366(9491), 1057–1058.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
8. Spiegel, J. M., & Yassi, A. (2004). Lessons from the margins of globalization: Appreciating the Cuban health paradox. Journal of Public Health Policy, 25(1), 85–110.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
9. African Population and Health Research Center. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.aphrc.org/
10. Pan American Health Organization. (n.d.). Retrieved February 13, 2014, from http://new.paho.org/
11. The World Bank. (2014). Countries and economies. Retrieved from http://data.worldbank.org/country
Please apply the Application Assignment Rubric when writing the Paper.
I. Paper should demonstrate an excellent understanding of all of the concepts and key points presented in the texts.
II. Paper provides significant detail including multiple relevant examples, evidence from the readings and other sources, and discerning ideas.
III. Paper should be well organized, uses scholarly tone, follows APA style, uses original writing and proper paraphrasing, contains very few or no writing and/or spelling errors, and is fully consistent with doctoral level writing style.
IV. Paper should be mostly consistent with doctoral level writing style.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Practicing Public Health
Different countries face varied health problems. Kenya and South Africa are examples of the countries, which both share similar and different challenges when it comes to health matters. HIV/AIDS is a major problem facing at least 7 percent of Kenyan population, hence, affecting its development directly. The spread is rampant due to inadequacy of medical facilities and lack of funding making access to antiretroviral a tall order. Another health problem in Kenya is malaria where more than 70% of its population is susceptible to this disease. Besides all the diseases that cause death in Kenya, car accidents are still major perpetrators, where Kenya comes first before South Africa. Maternal mortality is another challenge in Kenya where women die while giving birth, as well as tuberculosis, which is also a leading cause of death (Biggs et al., 2010).
Health problems in South Africa are equally a big challenge. The people are provided with healthcare through the public hospitals and private hospitals. However, the public health system serves most of the citizens despite the fact that it receives very little challenges and is also underfunded. HIV/AIDS is a life-threatening problem in South Africa with more than 5.6 million people having contracted the disease. In addition, national insurance system is facing problems since there is unequal access to healthcare amongst different socio economic groups. Water and sanitation is another huge challenge facing the South Africans. Majority of the people are unable to access clean water. On average, 15 million people are not supplied with clean water. This has resulted into reports of diarrhea in children and outbreak of cholera. The people in South Africa live an average of 49.56 years. Besides all these health problems, some other contagious diseases in South Africa are Bacterial Diarrhea, Typhoid Fever, and Hepatitis A. Another health problem in South Africa is mental illness. Majority of the adults (16.5%) are suffering from a very serious mental problem. Some of the factors leading to mental problems in South Africa include excessive use of drugs. Other predisposing factors to mental problems include malaria, typhoid, fever, and HIV, which contribute to a large extent to the mental problem.
Economic level and income inequality in Kenya and South Africa has influenced social determinants like social dynamics, the status of women, education and violence/homicide. The South African general population is made up of all races hold a view that women in the society are less important. The men ever since time in memorial believes that women are not supposed to hold any position in the society hence are economically disadvantaged. In Kenya, all the important sectors that control the economy of the country are controlled by men. Not long ago, women were made to walk or keep distance behind men in some places as a sign of obedience. The women have, therefore, been subjected to so harsh conditions in that they have to ensure that basic needs are provided in the family a role that should be played by men.
In South Africa, Income differentials are a phenomenon that is manifest among individuals, regions and nations. The high presence of inequality in the society has had far reaching implications on the provision of education. Education is the main determinant of someone s economic status since without education one cannot access any professional job hence low income. This problem of Income inequality is manifested mostly in uneven and unequal access to education by majority of the people or to some extent access to very poor quality of education (Spiegel & Yassi 2004). Consequently, this leads to so much ignorance in the general public due to lack of information. These factors heighten the already existing inequality since the distribution of earnings is to a large extend determined by the level and distribution of schooling across population. In Kenya, inequality in income has led to variation in different class of people in terms of education, hence, poor economic growth, which eventually affects the country and the people at large due to poverty (Rudan et al., 2010).
In both Kenya and South Africa, poverty levels determine crime rates since they are the more invisible barriers to crime set up by social norms and social cohesion. Poverty leads to loss of trust in the government, hence, increase in criminal activities. It is, therefore, directly related to crime and prostitution in the society, which leads to various health problems. In Kenya, poor people have fewer cases of obesity and use of drugs. In South Africa, the children of poor parents have a significantly lower chance of becoming wealthy (Norman et al., 2010).
Kenya and South Africa face health problems due to economic inequality, which directly affects social determinants in the society. Lack of money to purchase food as a result of economic inequality translates into people suffering from malnutrition due to poor diet. In addition the parents get a problem in getting money to take care of their
Economic inequality in social, economical or political scenario in the society directly impacts on the health status of that society. Some of the symptoms of poor health status in a given society include death of very young children and death of mothers when giving birth (IMR and MMR). Besides preventable death in Kenya, there is persistence and resurgence of many infectious diseases. There is a high number of people who lose their lives due to tuberculosis and the problem is not improving due to poor economic status. In addition, Malaria is another challenging problem. The problem of malaria incidence has remained a challenge since the mid eighties. Economic inequality results into poor health services, which in turn accelerates the spread of the diseases like dysentery (Coovadia et al., 2009). The total number of children who lose their lives due to this problem is 0.6 million; the main reason being economic hardship. The problem of diarrhea in Kenya can only be avoided by the government providing clean water to every citizen and also by providing drugs that can stop the death of the patients. Cancer claims over 0.3 million lives per year and tobacco related cancers contribute to 50% of the overall cancer burden, which means that such deaths might be prevented by tobacco control measures (Kyobutungi, Egondi & Ezeh 2010).
These health revelations are alarming especially in the health provision to the public sector. The most disappointing scenario is that these revelations are not improving despite the various measures taken by the governments including investment in private health sectors and indications of the improvement of the gross domestic product. These challenges that affect people directly are the main causes of health problems in many countries that endanger the lives of many people.
References
Biggs, B., King, L., Basu, S., & Stuckler, D. (2010). Is wealthier always healthier? The impact of national income level, inequality, and poverty on public health in Latin America. Social Science & Medicine, 71(2), 266–273 Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Coovadia, H., Jewkes, R., Barron, P., Sanders, D., & McIntyre, D. (2009). The health and health system of South Africa: Historical roots of current public health challenges. Lancet, 374(9692), 817–834.Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Kyobutungi, C., Egondi, T., & Ezeh, A. (2010). The health and well-being of older people in Nairobi’s slums. Global Health Action, 45–53. Retrieved from Walden Library databases.
Norman, R., Schneider, M., Bradshaw, D., Jewkes, R., Abrahams, N., Matzopoulos, R., & Vos, T. (2010). Interpersonal violence: An important risk factor for disease and injury in South Africa. Population Health Metrics, 8, 32–43. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Rudan, I., Kapiriri, L., Tomlinson, M., Balliet, M., Cohen, B., & Chopra, M. (2010). Evidence-based priority setting for health care and research: Tools to support policy in maternal, neonatal, and child health in Africa. PLoS Medicine, 7(7), 1–5. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Shelton, J. D., Cassell, M. M., & Adetunji, J. (2005). Is poverty or wealth at the root of HIV? Lancet, 366(9491), 1057–1058. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Spiegel, J. M., & Yassi, A. (2004). Lessons from the margins of globalization: Appreciating the Cuban health paradox. Journal of Public Health Policy, 25(1), 85–110. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases
Wilkinson, R., & Pickett, K. (2010). The spirit level: Why greater equality makes societies stronger. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Press.
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