Health Equity: 05/18/12

Friday, May 18, 2012

[EQ] Air Pollution and Sustainable Development - online seminar

XVI SDE Seminar Series towards Rio+20
Sustainable Development and Environmental Health – SDE - PAHO/WHO

Air Pollution and Sustainable Development

Wednesday May 23^rd, 2012 - In English with simultaneous translation to Spanish

Time: 12:00 am - 1:30 pm - EDT (Washington, DC USA) To check your time zone, see the World Clock

Website: Website PAHO/WHO Rio+20 at: http://bit.ly/oxoRdS

Environmental Health Inequalities in Europe. Assessment Report
EURO/WHO 2012 PDF [212p.] at: http://bit.ly/xA9tmV

The current Rio+20 zero draft of the outcome document includes the following paragraph:

“………..We commit to promote an integrated and holistic approach to planning and building sustainable cities through support to local authorities, efficient transportation and communication networks, greener buildings and an efficient human settlements and service delivery system,
improved air and water quality, reduced waste, improved disaster preparedness and response and increased climate resilience……….”

“……Industry, transport, information and societal development in general, have combined during the past centuries in a very productive way to human kind. Thanks to this today’s modern societies enjoy the comfort of terrestrial, areal and maritime transportation; a massive amount of goods and services hand reachable, and information and communications 24/7 around the world. However, these developments have produced different air pollutants such as gases (carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, methanol, volatile organics, etc.) and a varied amount of particulate emissions (diesel, carbon, lead, silica, etc.). All together they have strongly polluted our planet, particularly our atmosphere.

Analyzing the sources of air pollution, mobile sources represented in road and air transportation are considered to be the biggest air polluters, enhanced by urban sprawl, traffic density and long commutes. While within the fixed sources industry, household combustion devices and agricultural/forest fire emissions are considered to contribute the most. Consequently, smog hanging over cities is probably the most familiar and visible form of air pollution that does contribute to global warming, the greenhouse effect, the climatic changes, within other phenomena, and it also yields very deleterious health effects in humans and all living forms and creatures on the planet.

WHO estimates that 2.4 million people die per year because of air pollution. Some studies even show that at a global level, deaths are more attributable to air pollution than to automobile accidents. People suffering from respiratory diseases, as well as children and elderly are much more vulnerable to be affected. Short-term effects on human health usually are eye, nose and throat irritations, and upper respiratory infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia. Long-term effects are often more severe, including chronic respiratory diseases, lung cancer, heart disease, brain/neurological damages and liver diseases, within others.

This seminar will address some of these problems that certainly affect human populations around the world and that should help position health within the context of human sustainable development.

Agenda

12:00 Introduction: Agnes Soares, Moderator, Regional Advisor Sustainable Development and Environmental Health PAHO/WHO

12:05 Air Pollution, Health and Sustainable Energy considerations for Sustainable Development:

Daniel S. Greenbaum, President, Health Effects Institute

12:20 A National Perspective on intervention on Urban Air Pollution for Health in Sustainable Development in Mexico:
Leonora Rojas-Bracho, Director General
Urban and Regional Contamination National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change, Mexico

12:30 Transportation policies and air pollution:
Dinesh Mohan, Volvo Chair Professor Emeritus, Transport Research and Injury Prevention Program,
WHO Collaborating Centre. Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India

12:40 The challenge on air pollution and sustainable development from the Ministry of Health of Chile:
Victor Berrios, Chief Air Quality Surveillance Network (R.M), “Seremi de Salud R.M

12:50 Investing for Sustainable Development: Addressing the priorities in Latin American Cities:

Juan Carlos Belaustenguigoitia. World Bank’s Senior Environmental Economist

1 :00 Commentary: Nelson Gouveia, São Paulo University Medical School, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

1:10 Discussion

1:30 Adjourn

How to participate

In person:
PAHO/WHO
525 23rd ST NW
Washington DC, 20037 Room B – 12h to 13:30h Eastern Time (WDC)

Online: via Elluminate link:

- Spanish room: www.paho.org/virtual/SeminariosSDE

- English room www.paho.org/virtual/SDESeminars

Related material:

Health impacts of Air Pollution - http://bit.ly/KJt2g8
Publications on environmental burdens of disease - http://bit.ly/L5bJmv

Environmental health inequalities in Europe. Assessment report EURO/WHO http://bit.ly/xA9tmV

SDE Seminar Series towards Rio+20

For those who cannot follow the live seminar, we will have it available later at PAHO Rio+20 Toolkit at: http://bit.ly/oxoRdS

Food Security

No 15 Food Security, Health and Sustainable Development
http://bit.ly/J6S46s

Global Sustainable Development
No.14 Global Sustainable Development and Environmental Health- Joint Discussion with the US Institute of Medicine
http://bit.ly/M4zpwg

Sustainable Development Indicators
No.13 Health at the heart of Sustainable Development Indicators

http://bit.ly/IQGhgE

Economic – social aspects Non Communicable Diseases

No.12 Economic and social aspects of Non Communicable Diseases NCDs

http://bit.ly/IisLCg

Non Communicable Diseases

No.11 Non Communicable Diseases and Sustainable Development

http://bit.ly/JGgnvr

Workers health

No.10 Green Economy /Green Jobs: Health Risks & Benefits
http://bit.ly/IhCwK2

Regional Experiences

No. 9 The Voice and Experience of the Caribbean Islands towards SD
http://bit.ly/HGvKCh

Road Safety

No. 8 Road Safety and Public Transportation towards Sustainable Development:
an agenda for health for Rio+20
http://bit.ly/IS7rAH

Globalization

No. 7 Globalization and Health Equity towards Sustainable Development
http://bit.ly/HJ0PTT

Civil Society

No. 6 The Voices of Civil Society - Creating the Healthy Future
http://bit.ly/HRsJyd

Working Environments
No. 5 Employment and working conditions for Sustainable Development
http://bit.ly/ILtlHE

The Environment

No. 4 Amazon Region: Environment and Health in the Context of Sustainable Development
http://bit.ly/IlMMmK

Climate Change

No. 3 Climate Change and health in the context of Rio+20
http://bit.ly/J7NLFJ

Water

No. 2 Water and Sanitation
http://bit.ly/HP7kGw

Sustainable Development

No. 1 Public Health Challenges
http://bit.ly/Iv3LWW

KMC/2012/SDE
Twitter http://twitter.com/eqpaho

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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/ KMC Area]
Washington DC USA

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Thank you.

[EQ] Health Perceptions in Latin America

Health Perceptions in Latin America

Eduardo Lora

IDB WORKING PAPER SERIES No. IDB-WP-290 – December 2011

Inter-American Development Bank IADB/BID

Available online PDF [53p.] at: http://bit.ly/KJ4HY5

“………..The study uses identical polls of representative samples of the populations of 19 Latin American countries, which contain three types of health self-assessment questions:

i) satisfied/dissatisfied with own health, which also exists for other 110 countries;
ii) health status on a scale of 0-10; and
iii) the EQ-5D instrument, which asks about the presence of health problems in five dimensions: mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and

anxiety/depression.

The national averages of health satisfaction of Latin American countries do not differ significantly from other regions of the world. The differences between countries around the world do not have a robust relation with aggregate economic variables or traditional health indicators, but they do have a robust association with variables such as religion or the geographic location of the country, which could reflect cultural differences that shape health expectations and aspirations.

The influence of such cross-country cultural differences is more directly detectable when studying (in Latin American countries) the relation between (individual) responses to the health satisfaction and health self-rating questions.

Simple tolerance indicators of health self-rating are used as a way to measure cultural differences in health perceptions across countries…..”

Thank you.

[EQ] Global Health Governance and Financing Mechanisms

Global Health Governance and Financing Mechanisms

Working Paper - May 2012

Samantha Battams, Research Fellow, Global Health Europe, Global Health Programme
The Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies

Thiago Luchesi, Advisor for Child Health Policy and Rights, World Vision International

Available online PDF[ 23p.] at: http://bit.ly/JCW80N

“…..Despite extraordinary successive increases in international aid, we have not achieved desired gains in health equity. There has been a tendency to focus on vertical programmes and specific diseases, rather than supporting countries to develop sustainable health financing systems that would lead to universal coverage.

Despite the statements agreed to in the Paris and Accra declarations aid has in many cases reinforced the organizational and institutional health care divide between developed and developing countries.

The premise of international aid has recently changed, with the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation statement calling for greater ownership of development priorities, greater cooperation between various stakeholders for development, greater accountability for development efforts and more support for South-South and triangular cooperation. Within this framework, supporting health financing and health systems should be an important component of sustainable development. Achieving the right to health – a central goal for global health outlined in the WHO constitution – is intertwined with social, economic and environmental development.

Health equity is not the only goal, as access to processes of participation in agenda setting and cross-sectoral policy mechanisms, along with transparency and accountability are crucial. In our modern globalised system, we need to ensure that citizen’s right to participate is not undermined and that social inclusion is a primary goal.

Global Health Europe, together with World Vision International, have developed this resource based on World Health Summit sessions held in October 2011, in order to highlight key recommendations on global health governance and financing mechanisms made at this forum.

Through a range of mechanisms, we are advocating for stronger multi-stakeholder and citizen engagement in policy processes for global health, and fairer and more sustainable health financing mechanisms for universal coverage……”

Professor Ilona Kickbusch, Director, Global Health Programme

Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva

Chair, Global Health Europe Taskforce

Thank you.

[EQ] Shades of Gray: A Cross-Country Study of Health and Well-Being of the Older Populations in SAGE Countries

Shades of Gray:
A Cross-Country Study of Health and Well-Being of the Older Populations in SAGE Countries
2007–2010

Wan He and Mark N. Muenchrath of the U.S. Census Bureau, and Paul Kowal of the World Health Organization (WHO). General direction was provided by Peter O. Way, former Assistant Division Chief, International Programs Center for Demographic and Economic Studies, Population Division. Enrique J. Lamas, Chief, Population Division, provided overall direction. Additional direction was provided by Loraine A. West, Acting Chief, Aging Studies Branch, Population Division, Census Bureau, and Somnath Chatterji, Chief, Multi-Country Studies Unit, Department of Health Statistics and Information Systems, WHO

International Population Reports
Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE)
Issued May 2012 -P95/12- SAGE Countries—China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa

Available online PDF [76p.] at: http://1.usa.gov/JoY7kX

“……The report starts with Aging in SAGE Countries, which offers an overview of the aging process in these six countries, using the U.S. Census Bureau’s International Data Base (IDB), population projections data from the United Nations, and health data from the WHO.

The report then presents findings from the SAGE data in the following sections: Demographic and Socioeconomic Characteristics, Health State and Chronic Conditions, Risk Factors and Preventive Health Behaviors, Disability, Life Satisfaction and Quality of Life, Depression, and Health Care Utilization. The health variables are cross-examined by age (50–69, 70 and older), sex, and urban/rural residence.

The Summary and Discussion section provides conclusions from the SAGE data and also raises questions for future research. SAGE survey related information is included in the final section Sources of the Data and Accuracy of the Estimates.

The analysis in this report is based on self-reported responses. Estimates provided in this report are weighted. All comparative statements in the text have undergone statistical testing and are significant at the 90 percent confidence level unless noted otherwise. Note that not all comparisons shown in the figures and tables have undergone statistical testing and the differences between these estimates may not be statistically significant. Caution is needed when comparing data presented in the figures, text tables, and appendix tables….”

Content

Introduction

Aging in SAGE Countries

Demographic and Socioeconomic Characteristics

Health State and Chronic Conditions

Risk Factors and Preventive Health Behaviors .

Disability .

Life Satisfaction and Quality of Life

Depression .

Health Care Utilization
Summary and Discussion

Sources of the Data and Accuracy of the Estimates .

References

KMC/2012/HSD
Twitter http://twitter.com/eqpaho

* * *
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/ KMC Area]
Washington DC USA

Thank you.