Introducing Global Health: Practice, Policy, and Solutions

Introducing Global Health: Practice, Policy, and Solutions is a contemporary overview of the major issues in global public health. The book explores how population health might be maximized with the right blend of health system, education, antipoverty, infectious disease, urban development, governance, and incentive-based policies. It covers topics critical for understanding the state of the world today, including wars for natural resources, the missing women phenomenon, and whether global aid really works. The book's case studies focus on developing economies, mixed economies, and new emerging superpowers. Thematic chapters are interwoven with running motifs, such as the health risks and benefits associated with different totalitarian, capitalist, and market socialist economies. Moving beyond statistics, the book represents a major innovation in the teaching of global health by presenting technical concepts including the incidence and prevalence of disease within the context of more accessible topics such as global poverty. This helps students contextualize otherwise challenging but critical concepts, such as the burden of infectious disease. By encouraging reflection, focusing on what works, and using activities and exercises, Introducing Global Health both teaches fundamentals of global public health and cultivates a policy perspective that is appealing and compelling for today's students.

Table of Contents:
Figures and Tables ix The Authors xiii Introduction: An Overview of Global Health xv Part 1 The Basics of Global Health 1 1 A Very Brief History of Global Health Policy 3 Key Ideas 3 Health and Public Policy Through the Twentieth Century 4 The Age of Global Health Policy 11 The Fall of Global Governance 16 The Millennium Development Goals 19 An Alternative History 21 Love and Health in Modern Times 25 Summary 27 Key Terms 27 Discussion Questions 27 Further Reading 28 References 28 2 Case Studies in Development and Health 31 Key Ideas 31 The Puzzle of “Good” Development for Health 33 The Next Superpowers? Taking a Closer Look at Middle-Income Countries 37 Growth-Mediated Models 40 Support-Led Models 41 Toward a Happy Medium? 43 China’s Explosive Growth 45 Kerala’s Quality of Life 49 Chile Aims for a Balancing Act 52 Summary 56 Key Terms 56 Discussion Questions 56 Further Reading 57 References 57 Part 2 Global Health and the Art of Policy Making 61 3 The Global Burden of Disease 63 Key Ideas 63 Who Dies Where? 64 Counting Global Deaths (with an Eye Toward Saving Lives) 69 Dead Children Make for Bad Statistics 73 The Health Effects of Evil Genies 74 Quantifying the Global Burden of Disease 77 Cost-Effectiveness Analysis 81 Summary 83 Key Terms 84 Discussion Questions 84 Further Reading 84 References 84 4 Aid 87 Key Ideas 87 Different Types of Aid 88 The Aid Controversy 91 Models of Global Aid for Public Health 92 Argument: Aid Is Harmful 95 Argument: Aid Is Poorly Managed 97 Argument: Aid Is Misused 99 Argument: “Aid” Further Consolidates Power for the Powerful 101 Argument: All Is Well, Just Send More 102 Argument: We Are Making Progress, But the Hurdles Are High 102 Summary 104 Key Terms 105 Discussion Questions 105 Further Reading 106 References 106 5 Health Systems 109 Key Ideas 109 Health Care Delivery Systems 111 Health Care Payments 114 Health Care Markets 116 Health Care Delivery Systems in High-Income Countries 117 Health Care Delivery Systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries 124 Pharmaceutical Spending 132 What Makes Us Healthy? 134 Summary 138 Key Terms 138 Discussion Questions 139 Further Reading 139 References 139 6 Social Policy and Global Health 143 Key Ideas 143 How Policies Are Made 144 Political Economy and Health 151 Lessons for Health-Optimizing Social Policies 164 Summary 165 Key Terms 166 Discussion Questions 166 Further Reading 166 References 166 7 A Closer Look at Three Political Economies: China, Kerala, and Chile 169 Key Ideas 169 China: Sustainable State of Development? 170 Kerala: Experiments with Radical Decentralization 176 Chile: A Precarious Third Way 181 Summary 190 Discussion Questions 190 Further Reading 191 References 191 8 Global Governance and Health 193 Key Ideas 193 The World Health Organization 194 The World Trade Organization 197 An Evolution of Global Governance 200 Summary 208 Key Terms 209 Discussion Questions 209 Further Reading 209 References 210 Part 3 Key Challenges in Global Health 213 9 Poverty 215 Key Ideas 215 Income and Health Across Nations 216 Definitions of Poverty 218 Why Do We Worry About Poverty in Public Health? 222 Poverty in Less-Developed Nations 228 Poverty and Health Among Wealthy Nations 232 The Complexities of Poverty 240 Summary 240 Key Terms 241 Discussion Questions 241 Further Reading 241 References 241 10 The Physical Environment and Disease 245 Key Ideas 245 Infectious Disease and Development 246 Malaria and Other Mosquito-Borne Illnesses 251 Air Pollution and Health 255 Outer-Ring Development and Health259 Climate Change and Health 262 Summary 267 Key Terms 267 Discussion Questions 267 Further Reading 268 References 268 11 The Social Environment and Disease 271 Key Ideas 271 The Ultimate Trifecta: Race, Class, and Gender 272 The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) 282 Tuberculosis 286 Social Networks and Chronic Disease 289 Individual Risk Behaviors, Urban Planning, and Health 292 Summary 297 Key Terms 297 Discussion Questions 298 Further Reading 298 References 298 12 Globalization, Internal Conflict, and the Resource Curse 303 Key Ideas 303 Globalization and Health 303 Spillover Effects of Poor Global Governance 307 Civil Conflict as a Public Health Problem 308 Resource Curses and Civil Conflict 310 Natural Resources and Civil War 316 Summary 319 Key Terms 320 Discussion Questions 320 Further Reading 321 References 321 13 Frontiers in Global Health 325 Key Ideas 325 The Many Levels of Health 328 Tidings, Good or Bad, Come in Clusters 331 Working with the System 333 A Rise in Targeted Social Policy Interventions 338 Innovations in Administration and Governance 347 Lessons on Social Policy Interventions 349 Summary 349 Key Terms 350 Discussion Questions 350 Further Reading 350 References 351 Index 357

About the Author :
Peter Muennig, MD, MPH, is associate professor of health policy and management at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, New York. He cofounded the Burmese Refugee Pro- ject, has consulted for various governments, and has won a national teaching award in public health. Celina Su, PhD, is associate professor of political science at the City University of New York. She has written two books on education policy and politics, cofounded the Burmese Refugee Project, and she is a steering committee member of New York City's participatory budgeting. Her honors include the Berlin Prize.