Interrelation between health and population: Observations derived from field experiences

Abstract

Ahtract-This paper presents information and concepts concerning the health of populations in less developed countries as background for discussions of more focused and detailed papers on these and related subjects.It begins with a review of health status and trends in developing countries since 1950. followed by a section identifying the major health problems and their causes.The third part includes analyses of associations between health resources. water and sanitation facilities. food availability. and economic and social indicators taken as independent variables and measures of health status-life expectancy, crude death rates. and infant mortality-as the dependent variables.The final section discusses health policies and their implementation and offers an analysis of the resource requirements and health effects of diffesent methods of organizing and combining health programs in a few developing countries. The objective is to illustrate a method of determining preferred activities at any given level of investment and the probable health effects of varying increases in the level of health expenditures. LIFE EXPEflANCV AND DEATH RATES IN LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES: STATUS AND TRENDS Merhodological twre 99 7 7 10 9 22 15 14 17 15

Literacy And Health Status In Developing Countries

“…But in 1970-1975 the most important indicator was percentage of the adult popUlation literate, which explained 78% of the variation by itself. In addition, the model showed that sanitation variables began to appear as significant correlates of life expectancy in the later period, playing a larger role than income per capita (31).…”

Vitamin a cost‐effectiveness model

“…Such a decision requires determination of the costs and health effects of other health programs in West Java. In an earlier study of Javanese health programs, costs and effectiveness of health interventions were calculated (Grosse 1980;Grosse, DeVries and Tilden, 1981). A rough comparison between the vitamin A programs and the interventions examined in the other study (medical care reorganization, nutritional supplements, immunization and sanitation) indicated that the vitamin A programs have the potential to reduce child mortality at very much lower cost.…”

Dynamics of rural development in southern Sudan

“…It is assumed that under conditions of famine people will first decrease their activities to try to balance intake and expenditure of energy, so that their health will not be seriously A further deterioration of the food supply, however, will rapidly increase mortality (see Table 1). On account of experiences in other countries (Grosse 1980;Stock 1985; Walsh and Warren 1980), it is assumed that an improvement of medical services will only afFect infant mortality. Migration constitutes an important drain on the population, especially for ages 16-40.…”