Download Overview of Chapter 8: Health and Longevity

Chapter 8: Health and Longevity
Beyond Economic Growth: An Introduction to
Sustainable Development
By Tatyana P. Soubbotina
1
Overview of Chapter 8: Health and
Longevity

Global trends


Population age structures


How many non-workers must be supported by each worker?
The burden of infectious disease


Life expectancy and under-5 mortality rates have improved
for most countries
HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria
Lifestyle challenges to health and longevity

Smoking
2
How do we measure health and
longevity?

Two important indicators:



Life expectancy at birth is the number of years a newborn baby
would live if prevailing health conditions stay the same
Under-5 mortality rate is the number of newborn babies who are
likely to die before reaching age 5 per 1,000 births
Exercise: Look at these indicators in Gapminder to see
how health has improved over time.
3
Global trends in health and longevity

Indicators of health and longevity are



Other factors in improving health:




better in high income countries (Figure 8.1)
Improving in all regions (Figure 8.2) as GDP per capita
increases
Improvements in medical technology
Better public health services: clean water, sanitation, safe food
Education (especially of girls)
Remaining problems: Malnutrition, communicable
diseases, maternal mortality
4
Population age structures change over
time

In countries with high birth-rates and high death rates,
much of the population is young


In countries with low birth-rates and low death rates,
more of the population is adult or elderly


Population pyramid is triangular (Figure 8.3 on left)
Population pyramid is pear-shaped or rectangular (Fig 8.3 rt.)
Age structure determines the age dependency ratio, the
ratio of non-workers to workers


Low-income countries have “too many” young people
High-income countries have “too many” old people
5
Infectious diseases are a leading cause of
mortality in developing countries

HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria are major killers




No effective vaccines
Treatment is costly (HIV/AIDS) or resistant to drugs (TB)
and depends on group behavior (contagion)
Prevention is difficult among poorest people in poorest
countries
Why no vaccines?


Not profitable for drug companies
Can donor governments and international development
organizations fill the gap?
6
Lifestyle choices can affect health

Health problems from smoking (and obesity) are driven
by choices and can be prevented

Much higher prevalence of smoking among males in
low-income countries (See Figure 8.4)

High-income countries have done much to reduce
smoking by using taxes, education, and advertising
limits
7