Global Burden of Disease
“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in a speech to the Medical Committee for Human Rights, 1966 (Physicians for a National Health Program)
Health and Socioeconomic status
Health is determined by two factors: the genotype and the interaction of the genotype with world outside the body: the environment. Although one’s genotype may occasion disease, it presents a predisposition to given illnesses that arise because of interaction with one’s environment. In this respect, the quality of the environment is important, as toxins, carcinogens, and other potentially lethal substances exist within polluted air, water, or soil. Examining global health data, one is struck by the manner in which life expectancy and diseases vary with socioeconomic status, gender, and age. . Although all human beings have almost identical genotypes (we share 99.5% of our DNA), our “environments” have a drastic effect on our health. An analysis of Global Disease Burden data evidences the influence these demographic variables have on the quality and longevity of life (WHOb).
Data compiled by (Sepulveda and Murray) show that mortality rates are influenced by a society’s degree of economic development, by age, race, and gender. For example the most prevalent diseases in Sub Saharan Africa are infectious diseases, which affect mostly women and young children while the rate of death in high income economies (such as Eastern Europe and the United States) for similar diseases is almost negligible. This disparity is due principally to the improved infrastructure, sanitation, and nutrition of women and children in developed economies. African nations and other economically distressed nations (such as Haiti) have limited economic resources and little ability to provide access to clean water, or adequate nutrition to women and children. “The burden of communicable, maternal, neonatal and nutritional diseases in [Sub-Saharan Africa] exceeds the [Years of Lost Life] scale” (Sepulveda and Murray 1276). A similar analysis of other metrics (life expectancy or Disability Adjusted Life Years) provides additional evidence that communicable infectious diseases are more prevalent amongst the poor in developing (and underdeveloped) economies.
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