Public Health Perspectives on Conflict

This is part of a 4 abstract panel entitled "Conflict and Public Health: A Framework for Conceptualizing their Interconnections"

Public health perspectives tend to consider conflict in terms of its impacts on population health as measured by mortality, morbidity (including injury) and displacement. The objective of this presentation is to indicate how "political conflict" lends itself to understanding from an epidemiological and demographic framework. How might the perspective change if conflict were considered like other health conditions or syndromes? How might public health examine definitions of conflict, classifications, causes, risk factors, and even modes of prevention?

Using examples from North Korea, Afghanistan, and Iraq, the presentation will help the audience understand how standard concepts from demography and epidemiology can be applied to quantify the magnitude of exposure to conflict and the role of conflict in regional health problems. Examples will include applying the demographic balancing equation, epidemiological rates, and population age pyramids in high conflict settings.