Health Equity: 10/04/11

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

[EQ] Gender- based violence in Solomon Islands: Translating research into action on the social determinants of health

Gender- based violence in Solomon Islands:
Translating research into action on the social determinants of health

Jennifer J. K. Rasanathan, Anjana Bhushan
World Health Organization, Regional Office for the Western Pacific
Background paper: WHO - World Conference on Social Determinants of Health, 19-21 October 2011, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Available online PDF [23p.] at: http://bit.ly/oQVowF

“………In light of anecdotal knowledge and regional attention to gender inequality and consequent gender based violence (GBV), Solomon Islands conducted the Solomon Islands Family Health and Safety Study (SIFHSS) in 2008, which revealed epidemic levels of GBV that demanded a national response….”

“….Intersectoral actions on multiple determinants of genderbased violence (GBV) have the best chance to successfully and sustainably eliminate GBV. International consequences primarily include further support for this research methodology and a best practice example of policymaking targeted to preventing and addressing GBV while also acting on its root causes. …”.

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information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics;
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Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members”.
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[EQ] How can we get the social determinants of health message on the public policy and public health agenda?

How can we get the social determinants of health message on the public policy and public health agenda?

Translating data into a Social determinant of health SDH Information Tool to inform policy and public health programs:
Using existing databases to create community profiles of social factors that shape Utah’s health

Len B. Novilla, Michael D. Barnes, Carl Hanson, Josh West, Eric Edwards

Brigham Young University; Provo, Utah, USA.
Background paper: WHO - World Conference on Social Determinants of Health, 19-21 October 2011, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Available online PDF [24p.] at: http://bit.ly/nLMfk3

“…..For the last 20 years, from 1990-2010, the State of Utah had consistently been ranked among the top 10 healthiest states in the United States.1 However, a closer look at Utah’s life expectancies belies problems that run deep into the local levels. Disaggregating state-level data into 29 counties2 and then further down into 61 small areas as to groups or single zip codes,3 revealed disparities in life expectancies at birth (2009 estimates).4 Within the same county, there was a graded difference in life expectancies. Some areas have life expectancies over 80 years, far better than the nation’s and comparable to the five best in the world.5

Yet residents living just three to ten miles away within the same county, could die three to 10 years sooner (See Table 1),4 with an average life span about as long as those in developing countries.5 These disparities across counties was key to the drop in Utah’s 2010 health ranking, from second in 2009 to seventh in the nation in 2010, the lowest it had ever garnered in the last 20 years.1

Since life expectancies measure health status and summarize mortality across age groups in a specific area,4,6 these differences in life expectancies point to inequalities in health stemming from the “causes of the causes,”7 or the living conditions and processes that determine the overall quality of life, broadly referred to as the social determinants of health (SDH). Though much more apparent among the vulnerable, at-risk, and underserved populations, disparities in health occur differentially across social groups, limiting life spans as well as socio-economic mobility.

Despite the impact of social factors on health, translating the social determinants of health through policy and practice is fraught with challenges…..”

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[EQ] In remembrance of Barbara Starfield

The Department of Health Policy & Management
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

INVITE YOU TO CELEBRATE THE LIFE OF

BARBARA STARFIELD, md, mph

Professor Starfield spent her career of research, teaching and advocacy at the Department of Health Policy & Management.
Her passion, intellect, and sense of mission have resulted in an amazing legacy that will have lasting effects on the health of communities around the globe, and on all of us.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011
4:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.

Sommer Hall
Bloomberg School of Public Health
615 North Wolfe Street
Baltimore, MD 21205

Reception to follow

RSVP to
nbarton@jhsph.edu
443-287-5411

Remembrances can be posted online at
http://www.jhsph.edu/dept/hpm/starfield_memorial.html

Parking is available in the Washington Street garage,
at the corner of Washington and Monument Streets.

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[EQ] The Brazilian experience with conditional cash transfers: A successful way to reduce inequity and to improve health

The Brazilian experience with conditional cash transfers:
A successful way to reduce inequity and to improve health

Leonor Maria Pacheco Santos1, Romulo Paes-Sousa2. Edina Miazagi1, Tiago Falcão Silva2, Ana Maria Medeiros da Fonseca2

1 University of Brasília, Brazil

2 Ministry of Social Development and Fight Against Hunger, Brazil
Background paper: WHO - World Conference on Social Determinants of Health, 19-21 October 2011, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Available online PDF [16p.] at: http://bit.ly/n7A1QW

Concerns about poverty and inequity have been present in the Brazilian society for some decades.

“….The use of Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT) as an instrument of social policy reflects the widespread belief in Brazil that people are poor due to the “fault of an unjust society”. The 1988 Constitution established a legal foundation of social assistance as guaranteed rights for the needy – and also an obligation of the state to provide health and education services, among others, the access to which is established as a basic right of all citizens….”

“…..Bolsa Familia Program (BFP) and largely expanded. The BFP seeks to invest in human capital, by associating cash transfers with educational goals and uptake of health services

The BFP operations are very well regulated in the 5,564 Brazilian municipalities. There is one Law, nine Presidential Decrees, one Ordinance and about 50 Operating Instructions. This legislation guarantees direct cash transfer to families in poverty or extreme poverty contexts, which have in their composition pregnant women, nursing mothers, children between zero and twelve, and adolescents from twelve to fifteen years old. …”.

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