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View largeDownload slide View largeDownload slide Anne-Emanuelle Birn is Professor of Critical Development Studies and Social Behavioural Health Sciences at the University of Toronto School of Public Health. She served as Canada Research Chair in International Health from 2003 to 2013. In 2014, she was recognized among the top 100 Women Leaders in Global Health. Yogan Pillay is Deputy Director General for HIV, Tuberculosis, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Programmes in the National Department of Health, South Africa. He has 20 years’ experience in health system reforms and has published widely on HIV, tuberculosis and health systems. Timothy H. Holtz is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Global Health at the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health. He worked for the US Centers for Disease Control and as a consultant to the World Health Organization. He co-founded Doctors for Global Health, a health and social justice nongovernmental organization. Formerly known as the ‘Basch’ textbook, this is a complete revision of the Textbook of International Health, which sold over 25000 copies across three editions. It offers a broad introduction to global health integrating critical analytic approaches. The book synthesizes history, epidemiology, environmental studies, economics, policy and financing to provide a comprehensive overview of how these factors influence health patterns within countries and across the globe. The major determinants of regional global health are discussed, with description of interventions undertaken at community, national and international levels. The authors claim this is the first global health textbook employing a political economy of health analytic framework, for students, practitioners and advocates for global health. Health problems are rooted at the confluence of social, political, economic and biomedical factors that together inform the understanding of global health. These factors operate individually, in combination or synergistic- ally. The first section (chapters 1–7) provides the basic tools for understanding global health. Chapters 8–12 analyse global health and present challenges from the priority areas with constructs and concepts for understanding and improving global health efforts. The final section (chapters 13 and 14) examines global health policy formulation and the roles and responsibilities of those working in the field locally, internationally and transnationally. A central tenet of the book is whether global health ends are better served by targeted interventions or by broad-based efforts to redistribute the social, political and economic resources that determine the health of populations? Although health technologies have improved, the social, administrative and political disruption accompanying economic growth can still impede the delivery of health improvements. The more insidious threats to global collective security and health are posed by the continuous and accumulating social inequality and environmental degradation produced by untrammelled free market growth. This may, in the long run, be even more devastating to global population health. There is an extensive analysis of the societal factors shaping health, how health inequities challenge public health, international aid or socio-economic policymaking. The authors describe: the historical dynamics; the political economy of health and current global health structure, including its actors, agencies and activities; social health determinants, from global trade and investment treaties to social policies, living and working conditions; the role of health data in measuring health inequities; major causes of global illness and mortality beyond communicable versus non-communicable diseases, deprivation, work, globalization, trade/investment, financial liberalization, precarious work, environmental degradation and contamination; the principles of health systems and politics of health financing; and community, national and transnational social justice approaches to healthy societies. The 14 chapters flow logically, using extensive illustrations, figures, tables and boxes. The final chapter invokes a social justice approach to global health, by individual action or motivations, organizational or at a political economy level of world structures and order. The writing is clear and accessible with exhaustive, up-to-date, references. There are key questions and learning points in each chapter which summarize the vast amount of information presented. For occupational physicians, Chapter 9 highlights the impact of globalization, trade and neoliberal economic policies on the organization of work, deregulation of worker and environmental protections, occupational health and safety (OSH) for vulnerable groups such as women and children and the effects of precarious employment. The contribution of OSH is neglected in global health. This is a must read for those seeking to understand the structural factors, arrangements and rules generating poor health and inequities at home and across the globe. Rating ★★★★ (Essential) © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com
Occupational Medicine – Oxford University Press
Published: Jan 1, 2018
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