December 19, 2007
Global Health Survey Finds Regional Differences
Health care has been a prominent issue on the campaign trail in the U.S. this year, with presidential candidates, particularly on the Democratic side, vowing to expand access to health care coverage for the over 40 million Americans without insurance. According to a new study, these concerns about the quality and availability of health care are also shared worldwide, albeit in different ways.
The global survey [PDF] from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Pew Global Attitudes Project shows that while health care ranks high among citizens' political priorities around the world, attitudes toward the issue vary widely according to where people live, their economic status and their experiences with particular diseases.
Overall, the survey of over 45,000 people in 46 countries finds that health is a "local phenomenon." Not surprisingly, respondents in areas hardest hit by disease and malnutrition, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, were more likely to rank health as the top problem for their countries. In other regions, including Latin America, Asia and Europe, crime, terrorism, drugs and pollution were perceived as greater threats than the spread of infectious diseases.
Encouragingly, the study suggests that, over the past five years, there has been a widespread decline in the number of people who cannot afford proper food and health care. According to the pollsters' analysis, decreases were correlated to economic growth; countries "showing the biggest growth in GDP per capita" also had "the greatest declines in food and health care deprivation."
Pollsters also tested attitudes toward foreign aid and found that while people around the globe agree that wealthy countries could do more to help developing nations, individuals in countries that are the biggest recipients of international aid are more likely to say that the developed world is already doing its part. Out of 18 nations that were designated "major aid recipients," at least one-third of respondents in 10 countries said that "wealthier nations are doing enough to help poorer nations with economic development, reducing poverty and improving health." Indonesia ranked highest on the question, perhaps due to the outpouring of international support in response to the devastating tsunami that hit three years ago.
Those results could be considered good news for the U.S., where according to a recent U.N. Foundation/Better World Campaign foreign policy survey [PDF], a majority of citizens want to see improved relations with the international community. One advocacy group, the ONE Vote '08 campaign, is pushing the 2008 presidential candidates to make poverty- and disease-fighting initiatives a central tenet of their foreign policy agendas in order to ensure that the next president will continue to help developing nations eradicate the conditions that contribute to the spread of disease.
Posted at 12:30 PM
Posted to:
Africa, Campaigns, Economy, HIV/AIDS, Health, U.N., WH 2008
Share via
