This edition first published 2017
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Names: Armstrong‐Mensah, Elizabeth A., author.
Title: Lecture notes. Global health : issues, challenges and global action/Elizabeth A. Armstrong‐Mensah.
Other titles: Global health : issues, challenges and global action
Description: Chichester, West Sussex ; Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016047330 | ISBN 9781119110217 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781119110231 (Adobe PDF) | ISBN 9781119110224 (ePub)
Subjects: | MESH: Global Health | Cost of Illness | Environmental Health
Classification: LCC RA441 | NLM WA 530.1 | DDC 362.1–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016047330
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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This book is dedicated to William Armstrong‐Mensah, David Armstrong‐Mensah, Joseph Yankson, Rose Yankson, and Anthony Yankson.
Global health is an emerging interdisciplinary field of study, research, and practice whose scope, objectives, resources, and training requirements remain unclear to many. While it is now more apparent that we live in an increasingly globalized interconnected world, where countries and organizations form partnerships to address the host of health issues that confront the world, the lines of demarcation between what pertains and relates to the domains of international and global health unfortunately remain unclear to some. What is unsettling is how some consider global health as no different from that of international health; the health‐related field the world focused on prior to global health. International health and global health share a few things in common, but they are very different in many respects. An understanding of these differences sets one on the path to knowing what global health is and what it is not, as well as its goals and required skill sets.
With this misconception and death of information comes the need for dialogue and literature to shed more light on this burgeoning field. Hence the authoring of this book. A global health textbook should contain a wide enough range of relevant topics with sufficient depth to provide a solid foundation and knowledge of the field. It should also adequately focus on the challenges posed by the global health issues they discuss and the global actions and strategies in place to address them. Global Health – Issues, Challenges, and Global Action does just that. It provides an appropriate mix and range of global health topics in one volume, with sufficient depth to provide clarity and a good grounding in the field. This book presents and clarifies the concept of global health, defines its scope, and shows how different it is from international health. It additionally introduces readers to key global health concepts and pertinent global health issues that confront both developed and developing countries. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the book further reveals the critical links between health, disease, and socioeconomic development, as well as the global efforts under way to address the global health issues and challenges it discusses.
Global Health – Issues, Challenges, and Global Action is intended as an introductory text in global health and is based on first‐hand global health issues I personally observed and experienced after over 20 years in the developing world, and over 15 years in the developed. It is also the result of undergraduate and graduate courses I taught at Emory University, Morehouse School of Medicine, and Georgia State University. It is hoped that the book will increase the global health knowledge base and skills of under graduate and graduate students who may or may not have taken a course in global health, and for faculty and practitioners of global health as they pursue careers in global health practice, education, and research.
The book comprises 16 interrelated chapters. Chapter one, which is essentials of global health outlines the features of global health, shows how it is different from international health, and why it is a relevant field of study in current times. Chapters two and three discuss the effects of globalization on global health and noncommunicable diseases. Chapter four focuses on the global burden of disease, chapter five on culture, behavior, and global health, and chapter six on water, sanitation and global health. Chapter seven presents information on global hunger, nutrition, and food security, and chapter eight features human rights and how they relate to global health. Chapters nine and ten deal with natural disasters and complex humanitarian emergencies, and gender, sexual and reproductive health. In chapters eleven and twelve, health systems and health systems financing are discussed followed by ethics in global health research in chapter thirteen. The last three chapters focus on the just ended United Nations Millennium Development Goals and their impact on global health, global health partnerships and governance, and evaluating global health projects.
I am indebted to my husband and son for their encouragement, patience, and support throughout this journey.