8. Newborn and child health

Table of Contents
Headshot of Joanna Breems, Clinical Assistant Professor
Joanna Breems
Clinical Assistant Professor
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As you may have noticed so far, children are a key population in the study and work of global health. In many ways, the health of children in a population/country/region acts as an indicator. Health and lives of children are intricately linked to economic access and particularly susceptible to the effects of poverty and inequalities. Early childhood is a vulnerable time physiologically and psychologically. Access to quality care, safety measures (such as vaccines), nutrition, and sanitation are all necessary to keep children, who are unavoidably dependent on adults/older caregivers, healthy. With international focus on newborn and child health, there has been marked improvement in morbidity and mortality over the years, but when the vast majority of this morbidity and mortality is preventable, the international community has agreed that there is more to do.  

Learning objectives

  • Describe the most important causes of illness and death for young children globally and explore the state of child health in country/region of interest
  • Describe the interactions of risk factors for childhood morbidity and mortality
  • Discuss strategies, barriers, and solutions to improving the health of children globally

Pre-module prompt

Before you start this module:

    1. Based on what you know about pediatrics, global health, and population health, if you could intervene on one determinant of health or institute one intervention to improve the health of children in a population, what would you chose and why?

On the Slack discussion board:

    • For the country of interest:
      • What is the infant mortality rate?
      • What is the mortality rate for children <5yrs?
      • What are the most common causes of disease and death in infants and children in that country?
      • What has been done in efforts to improve health of infants and children?
      • What type of immunization coverage has been achieved (MMR, DTP, and Polio)? Has this been affected by the pandemic? (optional resource for this question: www.gavi.org)
    • For the above questions, include what sources you used to find information.

Interactive Case Study: Newborn and Child Health.

Case adapted from:

    1. Fallah PN, Ovsak GG, Kasper J, et al. A longitudinal case-based global health curriculum for the medical student clerkship year. MedEdPORTAL. 2020;16:11038. https://doi.org/10.15766/mep_2374-8265.11038
    2. True story published at In Mozambique, A Mother’s First Child Lives Thanks to Neonatal Resuscitation Training. Healthy Newborn Network.

 

Acknowledgements
Case reviewers: Dr. Chris Anderson, Dr. Lindsey Evans Zamora (Vanderbilt University Institute of Global Health).

Image credits

Unless otherwise noted, images are from Adobe Stock.

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