Global health is an inherently interdisciplinary field, and those studying trends in health around the world can only gain insight if they are looking into more than just the raw numbers, more than just the biological science of disease and illness. It involves looking deeply at the underlying issues surrounding why people are at risk for diseases and illness, and what potential multi-faceted solutions would work within the given economic, political, geographical, and especially socio-cultural limitations of a particular region. These philosophies are core to understanding why certain well-meaning global health groups have failed when others have succeeded, and these ideals are central to the tenants upon which GlobeMed was founded.
With that in mind, I encourage you to read this article written by former National Office staff member and Northwestern alumnus Neal Emery, entitled “How the World Gets Sick and Dies”. A fascinating read, it references recently published studies that indicate people today are living longer than people even just twenty years ago. While that might sound positive and encouraging, as we know, global health issues are rarely that simple and straightforward. The truth of the matter, as these studies underscore and Emery elucidates, while people are living longer, the quality of their life is diminished by disease and illness. People are still getting sick – they’re simply not dying as fast.
The article in many ways is the epitome of what it takes to look critically at global health. You first begin by taking a simple statistic: the life expectancy of the world is increasing. Then you start to look carefully at what might explain that statistic: in this case, one reason life expectancy is increasing is that more money is being spent on communicable diseases such as TB and malaria, and the results show fewer people are dying from such diseases today than in the past. But instead of being content and continuing whatever advocacy was already present, you need to critically examine whether or not these facts really tell the whole story. Does that one statistic really explain what’s going on around the world? What sort of underlying issues are not illuminated by that one stat? Does increased life expectancy simply mean people are living and leading healthier lives?
Those sort of questions lead researchers to conduct further studies, talk to more subjects, and examine more global trends in a much more thorough and interdisciplinary manner, and, not surprisingly, the reality of the situation is much more complicated than one statistic could ever show. Without further research that explicitly tried to get at the core of the issues surrounding global health, we would never have been aware of the increase in non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes and mental health complications. We would have never been aware that the overall burden of disease has shifted towards more disability in adults. We would have never thought to examine the global implications of something like increased access to modern, processed, high-fructose corn syrup-filled foods in relation to diabetes and other cardiovascular diseases.
Such complex conclusions and results do not have easy conclusions, but are important for understanding the best way to tackle the underlying problems, which can guide policymakers and inspire grassroots global health movements. It is critical to remember to not lose sight of the forest behind the big tree.
Links!
–Dr. Ali Mokdad, a professor at the University of Washington and mentioned in Emery’s article, did a great interview with NPR a couple years ago about the disparity between women’s and men’s health
-A fascinating article from 2009 that we mentioned in our weekly GHU session on Wednesday about a small Wisconsin community with a seemingly random drop in infant mortality
-Potentially something we will discuss more on this blog, check out this series of articles detailing the latest in decoding your own genome and genetic engineering
Chapter updates:
We are going to be hosting an event on March 6th featuring a documentary called The Unforseen. More details forthcoming. Additionally, we encourage everyone to check out our new Web Thrift Store, which has a ton of great things for sale and provides a fantastic opportunity to donate anything you don’t want anymore. All the proceeds go directly to GlobeMed at Northwestern. If you prefer old fashioned monetary donations, please visit our Global Giving page and donate to help children in Namugoga, Uganda.