Health KQ1 Flashcards
Describe how the infant mortality rate differs between DCs and LDCs.
DCs have a lower IFR than LDCs. DCs have an IFR of 2-14 per 1000 live births while LDCs have an IFR of 15-131 per 1000 live births. For example, LDCs in Sub-Saharan Africa have an IFR of 39-131 per 1000 live births.
Describe how the life expectancy differs between DCs and LDCs.
DCs have a higher life expectancy than LDCs. DCs have a life expectancy of 70-80 years while LDCs have a life expectancy of 50-70 years. For example, LDCs in Sub-Saharan Africa have a life expectancy of 50-59 years.
Describe how diet affects health.
Poor diets lead to malnutrition where the body does not get enough nutrients to maintain healthy tissues and organ functions. This is more prevalent in LDCs. People in many LDCs suffer from poor health due to malnutrition. This is due to their inability to obtain enough food due to many reasons, for example, lower disposable income, rises in the food prices, natural disasters or civil strife. Excessive consumption of food can lead to obesity when the body converts the excess food consumed and stores it as fat. Obesity can lead to health problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and some forms of cancer. This is more prevalent in DCs and in some LDCs with rising disposable incomes. However this only affects a smaller proportion of the population and is not as widespread as malnutrition in many LDCs. Thus contributing to poorer health (lower life expectancy and higher IMR) in LDCs than in DCs
Describe how lifestyle choices affect health.
Lifestyle choices include habits, attitudes and activities. Healthy lifestyle choices include physical activity, proper diets and sufficient rest. Unhealthy lifestyle choices include inactivity, over consumption of food and alcohol and smoking. Lower levels of physical activity in DCs leads to poor weight management and weaker resistance against certain diseases. Inactivity accounts for around 3 million deaths per year. Smoking, which is more prevalent in LDCs (80% of smokers in LDCs), may lead to lung, mouth and stomach cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Smoking kills around 6 million people per year. Generally, lifestyle habits in DCs are healthier due to better education and availability of food. Thus contributing to poorer health (lower life expectancy and higher IMR) in LDCs than in DCs.
Describe how education affects health. (Most important)
People who are more educated are more likely to be informed on how to lead a healthy lifestyle. They also earn more income as they work at better paying jobs and have access to healthier food, better living conditions and medical care.
Infant mortality rates of children born to educated mothers are also lower as these mothers are aware of how best to care for their babies. Children with formal education are more likely to learn about health care and nutrition. There are more people with formal education in DCs than in LDCs. Thus contributing to poorer health (lower life expectancy and higher IMR) in LDCs than in DCs. For example, out of the 60 million primary school-age children who were out of school, only 2.3 million were from North America and Europe, while the majority were from the LDCs of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (44%).
Describe how income affects health.
Poverty limits the purchasing power that people have to afford basic health care, proper housing and nutrition. People in LDCs with lower incomes are more exposed to health risks because of poor quality housing, insufficient nutrition and lower levels of education. Affluence provides people with greater access to food, housing and better quality health services. This increases their resistance to diseases and also improves their ability to deal with diseases. Children are most vulnerable to health problems rising from poverty, e.g. nutrition-related diseases such as kwashiorkor. Also, children born in poverty are rarely given vaccination as it is expensive. For example, 61.5% of people living in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia live in poverty, while only 2% of people in Europe live in poverty.
Describe how investments in health care and access to health care services affects health.
This refers to the resources devoted by governments, businesses or individuals for the purposes of addressing health and medical needs. Generally, DCs have more resources to invest in health care than LDCs due to the greater resources that governments and individuals have at their disposal. People in LDCs may also have to travel long distances to get access to health care or may not be able to afford the money or the time to visit a hospital. People in DCs have better access to health care than people in LDCs thus have longer life expectancy and lower IMRs. For example, DCs usually have high doctor-patient ratios. In Singapore for every 10,000 people there are 18 doctors and 31 hospitals bed. However in LDCs, like Bangladesh, there are only 3 doctors and 4 hospital beds for every 10,000 people.
Describe how living conditions affect health.
Living conditions refer to housing, living spaces, and access to water, electricity and sanitation. Good living conditions are characterized by dwellings that are solid structures that can keep animals and insects, which might carry diseases, out, supplied with clean drinking water, electricity and sanitation which help to keep the houses clean and reduce the incidences and spread of diseases. Poor living conditions which lack the above are also often crowded which also contribute to the spread of diseases as diseases can spread more easily. For example, people living in slums in Mumbai often live in poorly built shelters of plywood, have 5 or more people in a room with no partitions, have no water except a common water tap, common toilets with no proper sanitation and are usually built on illegally occupied land. More people in DCs are able to afford good living conditions than in LDCs due to the higher incomes earned by people in DCs.
Describe how access to safe drinking water affects health.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines access to safe drinking water as places that have water source less than 1 km away and where it is possible to obtain at least 20 litres per person per day. The lack of safe drinking water can spread diseases such as cholera. Improper storage of water can also encourage the growth of harmful microorganisms and may also provide a breeding ground for mosquitoes. 99% of people in DCs have access to safe drinking water as compared to 86% in LDCs, Thus contributing to better health in DCs. For example, in rural areas in Laos, population increase has caused water scarcity and forced people to rely on marginal and polluted sources of water or groundwater from wells. Lack of sanitation and runoff from farms has contaminated even groundwater supplies. A lack of attention to basic hygiene has caused high rates of cholera, as people do not know how to treat the water by boiling before use.
Describe how proper sanitation such as toilets, sewage pipes treatment plants, rubbish collection and disposal affects health.
Proper sanitation refers to the safe storage, treatment and disposal of waste. Waste contains harmful microorganisms that can cause diseases. Proper sanitation controls and manages these wastes to keep the microorganisms from spreading to people. It also helps to keep pest under control by minimizing the amount of wastes available to pest as food. Pest can also spread diseases to the population. 95% of people in DCs have access to proper sanitation compared to only 58% in LDCs, thus contributing to better health in DCs. For example, after the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010, the UN sent peacekeepers to help with rebuilding. However due to poor sanitation at the camps of the peacekeepers, human waste was disposed untreated into rivers. This caused a cholera epidemic in Haiti, which had been almost non-existent in Haiti before. The number of cases has risen to 340,000, more than the rest of the world put together.
