Health and Nutrition

1
Health and Nutrition

• S. Dodaro
• Econ 306
• Stfx University

2
Defining Health

• Definition by the WHO
• state of complete physical, mental and social
  well being and not merely the absence of disease
  or infirmity

3
Measurement of Health Status

• Morbidity (sickness) but run into following
  problems
• Absence of clear-cut definition
• Data problems hard to identify the poor who are
  sick
• mortality (number of deaths)
• Child mortality rates (or infant survival rates)
• Like expectancy
• Both alternative measurements of mortality have
  weaknesses (see text)
• The disability-adjusted life year (DALY)
• Measurement also runs into data problems
• Provides some idea of magnitude of the health
  problem

4
Poverty, Distribution and Health and Nutrition

• Uneven distribution of access to health and
  nutrition leads to inferior status of those who
  are poor
• More even distribution leads to superior status
  even in incomes are low (see Figure 9.12
  especially)
• The combination of malnutrition and sickness is
  deadly
• The diseases affecting LDCs are many (see table
  9.6)
• Among the major scourges facing LDCS are
• Malaria and parasitic worms
• HIV AIDS
• The main contributors to childhoods death
  include acute respiratory infections, diarrhea,
  measles, malaria and malnutrition (some could be
  dealt with expenditures of a few cents per day.

5
The Disease Burden Dimensions and Trends

• There have been substantial gains
• Some gains are being reversed, especially in
  Sub-Saharan Africa, as a consequence of the AIDS
  epidemic, etc.
• See discussion and data presented in the text

6
Impact of Poor Health and Nutrition

• Withdrawal of labour from the production due to
• absenteeism (arising from sickness)
• premature death
• Waste of resources in curing people once they are
  sick (cheaper to keep them healthy in the first
  place)
• The lower productivity arising from
• workers not being able to work as hard and
  adopting a slower pace
• workers being less able to concentrate

7
Consequences of Better Health and Nutrition

• Lower mortality rates, especially those of
  infants
• increase productivity due to
• people being able to be more alert and work
  harder
• enabling people to live and work longer
• helps children to
• better develop both mentally and physically
• do better in school and learn more

8
Factors Associated with Health Problems

• Demographic factors
• high birth rates and high proportion of children
  in the population - children more vulnerable to
  diseases, etc.
• high fertility rates putting pressure on family
  (and social) resources such as
• food
• income
• parental time
• other resources

9
Factors Associated with Health Problems Continued

• Malnutrition
• involves quantity of food but also its quality
  and distribution
• function not only of prices and incomes but also
  the ability to make correct choices
• better nutrition may not accompany a rise in
  income due to substitution of more expensive and
  less nutritious foods (carbonated soft drinks,
  infant formula, junk foods) for cheaper and more
  nutritious ones (fruit juices, mothers milk,
  traditional foods)

10
Factors Associated with Health Problems Continued

• Unsanitary Living Conditions
• contaminated food and water (especially spread of
  water borne diseases)
• lack of proper waste disposal and sanitation
• lack of space, ventilation and access to sunlight
  (spread of air borne diseases)

11
Factors Associated with Health Problems Continued

• Inadequacy of Medical Care
• problem with both the quantity and the quality of
  medical care and services
• too little (in the 1970s as little as 1 or 2
  per capita yearly) and too unevenly distributed
• scarcity of trained personnel (doctors, nurses,
  etc)

12
Inadequacy of Medical Care Continued

• health services based on the modern western model
• geared towards health concerns of DCs
• mostly available to the rich or well to do
• essentially uses inappropriate technology -
  focusing on the curative rather than the
  preventive method
• concentration in urban areas (urban bias)
• hampered by spoilage of medicine due to heat,
  inadequate storage facilities, etc.

13
Elements of Primary Health Care

• Education concerning prevailing health problems
  and methods of preventing and controlling them
• promotion of food supply and proper nutrition
• provision of safe drinking water and proper
  sanitation
• maternal and child health care
• immunization against major infectious diseases
• prevention and control of broadly endemic
  diseases
• appropriate treatment of common diseases and
  injuries

14
Curative Versus Preventive

• Curative
• wait for people to get sick
• western model
• uses more technology and is more expensive
• Preventive
• keep people from getting sick
• uses less technology and is cheaper