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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Dhananjaya Arekere, PhD¹, Lee Green, PhD¹, Craig H. Blakely, PhD², Brian Rivers, PhD¹, Jan McCallum, BS³, and Dieula Delissaint, MPH⁴. (1) Center for the Study of Health Disparities, Texas A&M Univeristy, 4222 TAMU, 112 Harrington Tower, College Station, TX 77845, 979-862-2958, arekere@tamu.edu, (2) Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Rural Public Health, 1266 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843, (3) Texas A&M Univeristy, Center for the Study of Health Disparities, 4222 TAMU, 112 Harrington Tower, College Station, TX 77843, (4) Center for the Study of Health Disparities, Texas A&M University, 4222 TAMU, 112 Harrington Tower, College Station, TX 77845

Global health disparities are one of the most pronounced, prevalent and pernicious forms of injustices. Thus far, global health disparities have been primarily attributed to differences in socio-economic status (SES), in that predominantly to income inequalities, and differences in individual capacities and capabilities. Because the focus is on the symptoms, well-meaning national and international policies are ineffective as the problem of health disparities persists and may lead to negative consequences. There is a need to link the causes of differences in SES itself more directly to global health disparities. In this paper, this gap is addressed by analyzing several macro-level indicators of governance, voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption to two of the primary indicators of national health, life expectancy and infant mortality. Results indicate all but one of the governance indicators to be significantly (p<0.02) correlated to both the two health indicators. Because of the importance policies have institutions and individuals, more research should be carried out to develop the influences of governance on health and the interaction between governance and SES variables, and subsequently on health. Given that governance variables have been shown to be important determinants of economic progress, focus of policies may have to be shifted to changing institutional settings rather than on symptomatic areas of inequalities, like education, income and other access related issues.

Learning Objectives:

Participants should be able to
• better understand the causes of global health disparities
• differentiate between causal and mediating variables
• analyze cross-country governance, socioeconomic and health data

Keywords: Health Disparities, International Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation