This publication considers the final reports of three research projects that explored how investing in health can benefit economic growth, household productivity, and poverty reduction in Latin America and the Caribbean. It contains case studies of health systems and policies in a number of countries including Brazil, Jamaica, Mexico and Peru; as well as a review of experiences from other regions in the world regarding health inequalities and poverty alleviation.
This book draws on 15 years of IDRC-funded health systems research undertaken by researchers working closely with communities and decision-makers. They have generated contextually relevant evidence at local, national, regional, and global levels to tackle the entrenched health systems challenges.
At a time when social inequalities are increasing at an alarming rate, this new edition of Mel Bartleys popular book is a vital resource for understanding the extent of health inequalities and why they are proving to be persistent despite decades of growing knowledge and policies on the issue. As in the first edition, by examining influences of social class, income, culture and wealth as well as gender, ethnicity and other factors in identity, this accessible book provides a key to understanding the major theories and explanations of what lies behind inequality in health. Bartley re-situates the classic behavioural, psycho-social, and material approaches within a life-course perspective. Evaluating the evidence of health outcomes over time and at local and national levels, Bartley argues that individual social integration demands closer attention if health inequality is to be tackled effectively, revealing the important part that identity plays in relation to the chances of a long and healthy life. Health Inequality will be essential reading for students taking courses in the sociology of health and illness, social policy and welfare, health sciences, public health and epidemiology and all those interested in understanding the consequences of social inequality for health.
Serie de cuatro volúmenes que condensan la colección de dieciséis tomos que fue publicada en 2010 bajo el título de Los grandes problemas de México, con motivo de las conmemoraciones del bicentenario de la Independencia, del centenario de la Revolución y de los setenta años de El Colegio de México. Cada capítulo reproduce una estructura que contiene un diagnóstico, un pronóstico cuando es posible, y propuestas de acción en torno a problemas específicos. El presente volumen trata los principales problemas de carácter social en México: Desigualdad social, Movimientos sociales, Educación, Relaciones de género y Culturas e identidades
This report helps policy makers better understand the issues and challenges around geographic variations in health care provision and considers the policy options.
Global Handbook on Noncommunicable Diseases and Health Promotion David V. McQueen, editor A scan of health challenges around the globe readily brings to mind a range of infectious illnesses, from HIV to influenza. Yet chronic non-contagious conditions--heart disease, asthma, diabetes, cancer--are more prevalent, and their rates soaring, across the developed and developing worlds. The Global Handbook on Noncommunicable Diseases and Health Promotion is an important resource for understanding and approaching chronic illnesses and their prevention. This timely text balances theory and strategies to provide an integrative context for health-affecting behaviors regarding tobacco use, food choices, and physical activity. Coverage expands on current medical/clinical public health perspectives, arguing that closer attention to social context is crucial to better use of health resources and more relevant preventive efforts. Possible roles for hospitals, the workplace, government agencies, NGOs, and other institutions are analyzed, as is the potential for addressing larger underlying health factors (e.g., inequities and poverty) at the societal level. Topics covered include: The nature of causality: beyond traditional evidence Learning from the social sciences in chronic disease health promotion Contextual factors in health and illness Understanding and applying a social determinants of health framework for addressing NCDs Public health, NCDs, health promotion and business partnering NCDs and civil society: a history and a roadmap As the authors of the Global Handbook on Noncommunicable Diseases and Health Promotion make abundantly clear, opportunities are as numerous as the issues, and researchers and graduate students in global public health, health promotion, and chronic disease epidemiology will find these chapters positive and realistic.p>
"Supporting a Movement for Health and Health Equity" is the summary of a workshop convened in December 2013 by the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity and the Elimination of Health Disparities and the Roundtable on Population Health Improvement to explore the lessons that may be gleaned from social movements, both those that are health-related and those that are not primarily focused on health. Participants and presenters focused on elements identified from the history and sociology of social change movements and how such elements can be applied to present-day efforts nationally and across communities to improve the chances for long, healthy lives for all. The idea of movements and movement building is inextricably linked with the history of public health. Historically, most movements - including, for example, those for safer working conditions, for clean water, and for safe food - have emerged from the sustained efforts of many different groups of individuals, which were often organized in order to protest and advocate for changes in the name of such values as fairness and human rights. The purpose of the workshop was to have a conversation about how to support the fragments of health movements that roundtable members believed they could see occurring in society and in the health field. Recent reports from the National Academies have highlighted evidence that the United States gets poor value on its extraordinary investments in health - in particular, on its investments in health care - as American life expectancy lags behind that of other wealthy nations. As a result, many individuals and organizations, including the Healthy People 2020 initiative, have called for better health and longer lives.
The sociology of Latin America, established in the region over the past eighty years, is a thriving field whose major contributions include dependence theory, world-systems theory, and historical debates on economic development, among others. The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Latin America provides research essays that introduce the readers to the discipline's key areas and current trends, specifically with regard to contemporary sociology in Latin America, as well as a collection of innovative empirical studies deploying a variety of qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The essays in the Handbook are arranged in eight research subfields in which scholars are currently making significant theoretical and methodological contributions: Sociology of the State, Social Inequalities, Sociology of Religion, Collective Action and Social Movements, Sociology of Migration, Sociology of Gender, Medical Sociology, and Sociology of Violence and Insecurity. Due to the deterioration of social and economic conditions, as well as recent disruptions to an already tense political environment, these have become some of the most productive and important fields in Latin American sociology. This roiling sociopolitical atmosphere also generates new and innovative expressions of protest and survival, which are being explored by sociologists across different continents today. The essays included in this collection offer a map to and a thematic articulation of central sociological debates that make it a critical resource for those scholars and students eager to understand contemporary sociology in Latin America.
This volume brings together experts from a variety of disciplines, such as medicine, biology, sociology, epidemiology, anthropology, economics and political science, who focus on three areas: health disparities and inequity due to gender, the specific problems women face in meeting the highest attainable standards of health, and the policies and actions that can address them. Highlighting the importance of intersecting social hierarchies (e.g. gender, class and ethnicity) for understanding health inequities and their implications for health policy, contributors detail and recommend policy approaches and agendas that incorporate, but go beyond commonly acknowledged issues relating to women’s health and gender equity in health.
