[EQ] Shaping the world to illustrate inequalities in health

Shaping the world to illustrate inequalities in health

Danny Dorling, Anna Barford
Social and Spatial Inequalities Group, Department of Geography, University of Sheffield, England
Bulletin of the World Health Organization  -Volume 85, Number 11, November 2007, 821-900

Available online at: http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/85/11/07-044131/en/index.html

“……Visualizing inequalities in health at the world scale is not easily achieved from tables of mortality rates. Maps that show rates using a colour scale often are less informative than many map-readers realize. For instance, a country with a very small land area receives less attention, whereas a large, sparsely populated area on a map is more obvious. Furthermore, unlike our visual ability to compare the lengths of bars in a chart, we do not have a natural aptitude for translating different colours or shades to the magnitudes they represent. Here we introduce another approach to mapping the world that can be useful for illustrating inequalities in health.

Where do you think most infants in the world are born, where do most die and how have these measures changed since 1970? A map of birth rates would not help you much, unless you had the kind of memory that could associate several hundred areas with counts of their populations of young women, and had the ability to perform some quick mental arithmetic of rate reciprocals. Nor would maps of death rates help much in answering these questions. Seeing the world shaped by how many babies are born in a year is a more reliable and rapid way of communicating these numbers….”

 

 

*      *      *     * 

This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics;
Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues.  [DD/ IKM Area] 

“Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is". Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members”.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PAHO/WHO Website: http://www.paho.org/

EQUITY List - Archives - Join/remove: http://listserv.paho.org/Archives/equidad.html

 

 

 

 

    IMPORTANT: This transmission is for use by the intended recipient and it may contain privileged, proprietary or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this transmission to the intended recipient, you may not disclose, copy or distribute this transmission or take any action in reliance on it. If you received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email to infosec@paho.org, and please dispose of and delete this transmission. Thank you.