2. Global burden of disease

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Headshot of Joanna Breems, Clinical Assistant Professor
Joanna Breems
Clinical Assistant Professor
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In the first module, you explored what is meant by global health and were introduced to some key players influencing global health. But does one know what is and is not working in global health? How should priorities be set? What exactly is the health in global health and how do we get there? It is important to have some degree of agreement on what the goals should be and what metrics should be used (i.e., Sustainable Development Goals). The metrics used to describe and define health status also shed light on the important inequalities that exist between resource-rich and resource-limited environments. This module will introduce the commonly used metrics for evaluating and comparing health around the world, and the data that is used to evaluate Sustainable Development Goals that have been agreed upon as a pathway towards equity in whole health.

Learning objectives

  • Describe the major causes of morbidity and mortality and how risk varies by region, country income group, and age groups.
  • Define most important health indicators and terms related to measuring health status and burden of disease.
  • Describe public health efforts to reduce disparities.

Pre-module prompt

You are working in country X. You notice that there are many children that develop severe diarrheal disease, and it seems that diarrheal disease is often the cause when children die. You also have noticed that you’ve met many young adults who have become too ill to work due to tuberculosis. And you are surprised by how many older adults have severe kidney disease.

  1. Global Health 101, Chapter 2: Sections on Key Health Indicators, Vital Registration.

  2. Global Health 101, Chapter 3: Global Burden of Disease.

On the Slack discussion board:

    1. Compare the data presented in Global Health 101, Chapter 3, to the updated Global Burden of Disease Study (2019). What trends do you notice?
    2. If you could determine the global health agenda for the next 15 years, what broad issues would you prioritize? Describe how you came to your decision?
    3. The Sustainable Development Goals were discussed in Global health 101, Chapter 1, and Table 1-2 details some improvements that have been made as of 2016. Now it is your turn to dig into the data. There are suggested resources below, but you are also encouraged to explore information (if available) from the country of interest. You have two options:
      1. For the country/region of your interest, identify at least 3 Sustainable Development Goals and analyze progress towards targets in that goal. Were there impacts from COVID towards SDG targets/goals, in what ways?
      2. Select 1 SDG and compare three countries/regions in regard to progress toward targets in that goal. What key differences, if any, do you notice?

Recommended resources that you might use

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