Life Expectancy in Africa

Life Expectancy in Africa PDF Author: Augustine Adu Frimpong
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 179360357X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
Life Expectancy in Africa: Improving Public Health Policy provides readers with a comprehensive analysis of life expectancy in Africa and proposes avenues for improving public health policy on the African continent. The book studies the period between 1960 and 2015. To a large extent, the author offers an understanding of the changes of life expectancy at birth across regions and time in Africa to inform public policy decisions. The author relied on primary source data over the 1960-2015 period from The World Bank, Barro and Lee, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Adu Frimpong adopted exploratory spatial data analysis, which included spatio-temporal and spatial regression procedures. Adu Frimpong argues that the spatial spillover of major armed conflicts (or wars) does not only affect a country’s life expectancy at birth, but it also affects the life expectancy at birth of other neighboring countries. Above all, this book contends that the African continent suffers substantial losses in overall life expectancy of its citizenry from cradle to the grave. The continent experiences major armed conflicts — often in the form of civil wars — unabated to the detriment of the citizens of all its nations.

Life Expectancy in Africa

Life Expectancy in Africa PDF Author: Augustine Adu Frimpong
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 179360357X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 279

Get Book Here

Book Description
Life Expectancy in Africa: Improving Public Health Policy provides readers with a comprehensive analysis of life expectancy in Africa and proposes avenues for improving public health policy on the African continent. The book studies the period between 1960 and 2015. To a large extent, the author offers an understanding of the changes of life expectancy at birth across regions and time in Africa to inform public policy decisions. The author relied on primary source data over the 1960-2015 period from The World Bank, Barro and Lee, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Adu Frimpong adopted exploratory spatial data analysis, which included spatio-temporal and spatial regression procedures. Adu Frimpong argues that the spatial spillover of major armed conflicts (or wars) does not only affect a country’s life expectancy at birth, but it also affects the life expectancy at birth of other neighboring countries. Above all, this book contends that the African continent suffers substantial losses in overall life expectancy of its citizenry from cradle to the grave. The continent experiences major armed conflicts — often in the form of civil wars — unabated to the detriment of the citizens of all its nations.

Medical Nihilism

Medical Nihilism PDF Author: Jacob Stegenga
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198747047
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Medical nihilism is the view that we should have little confidence in the effectiveness of medical interventions. Jacob Stegenga argues persuasively that this is how we should see modern medicine, and suggests that medical research must be modified, clinical practice should be less aggressive, and regulatory standards should be enhanced.

Recent Fertility Trends in Sub-Saharan Africa

Recent Fertility Trends in Sub-Saharan Africa PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309381193
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 89

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Book Description
Fertility rates and population growth influence economic development. The marked declines in fertility seen in some developing nations have been accompanied by slowing population growth, which in turn provided a window of opportunity for rapid economic growth. For many sub-Saharan African nations, this window has not yet opened because fertility rates have not declined as rapidly there as elsewhere. Fertility rates in many sub-Saharan African countries are high: the total rate for the region is estimated to be 5.1 births per woman, and rates that had begun to decline in many countries in the region have stalled. High rates of fertility in these countries are likely to contribute to continued rapid population growth: the United Nations projects that the region's population will increase by 1.2 billion by 2050, the highest growth among the regions for which there are projections. In June 2015, the Committee on Population organized a workshop to explore fertility trends and the factors that have influenced them. The workshop committee was asked to explore history and trends related to fertility, proximate determinants and other influences, the status and impact of family planning programs, and prospects for further reducing fertility rates. This study will help donors, researchers, and policy makers better understand the factors that may explain the slow pace of fertility decline in this region, and develop methods to improve family planning in sub-Saharan Africa.

African Futures

African Futures PDF Author: Clemens Greiner
Publisher: Africa-Europe Group for Interd
ISBN: 9789004470811
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
"The essays in this collection are written to make readers (re)consider what is possible in Africa. The essays shake the tree of received wisdom and received categories, and hone in on the complexities of life under ecological and economic constraints. Yet, throughout this volume, people do not emerge as victims, but rather as inventors, engineers, scientists, planners, writers, artists, and activists, or as children, mothers, fathers, friends, or lovers - all as future-makers. It is precisely through agents such as these that Africa is futuring: rethinking, living, confronting, imagining, and relating in the light of its many emerging tomorrows"--

economic benefit of tuberculosis control

economic benefit of tuberculosis control PDF Author: Ramanan Laxminarayan
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Africa
Languages : en
Pages : 59

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Book Description
Abstract: Tuberculosis is the most important infectious cause of adult deaths after HIV/AIDS in low- and middle-income countries. This paper evaluates the economic benefits of extending the World Health Organization's DOTS Strategy (a multi-component approach that includes directly observed treatment, short course chemotherapy and several other components) as proposed in the Global Plan to Stop TB, 2006-2015. The authors use a model-based approach that combines epidemiological projections of averted mortality and economic benefits measured using value of statistical life for the Sub-Saharan Africa region and the 22 high-burden, tuberculosis-endemic countries in the world. The analysis finds that the economic benefits between 2006 and 2015 of sustaining DOTS at current levels relative to having no DOTS coverage are significantly greater than the costs in the 22 high-burden, tuberculosis-endemic countries and the Africa region. The marginal benefits of implementing the Global Plan to Stop TB relative to a no-DOTS scenario exceed the marginal costs by a factor of 15 in the 22 high-burden endemic countries, a factor of 9 (95% CI, 8-9) in the Africa region, and a factor of 9 (95% CI, 9-10) in the nine high-burden African countries. Uncertainty analysis shows that benefit-cost ratios of the Global Plan strategy relative to sustained DOTS were unambiguously greater than one in all nine high-burden countries in Africa and in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Russia. Although HIV curtails the effect of the tuberculosis programs by lowering the life expectancy of those receiving treatment, the benefits of the Global Plan are greatest in African countries with high levels of HIV.

Critical Perspectives on Racial and Ethnic Differences in Health in Late Life

Critical Perspectives on Racial and Ethnic Differences in Health in Late Life PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309092116
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 753

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Book Description
In their later years, Americans of different racial and ethnic backgrounds are not in equally good-or equally poor-health. There is wide variation, but on average older Whites are healthier than older Blacks and tend to outlive them. But Whites tend to be in poorer health than Hispanics and Asian Americans. This volume documents the differentials and considers possible explanations. Selection processes play a role: selective migration, for instance, or selective survival to advanced ages. Health differentials originate early in life, possibly even before birth, and are affected by events and experiences throughout the life course. Differences in socioeconomic status, risk behavior, social relations, and health care all play a role. Separate chapters consider the contribution of such factors and the biopsychosocial mechanisms that link them to health. This volume provides the empirical evidence for the research agenda provided in the separate report of the Panel on Race, Ethnicity, and Health in Later Life.

Aging in Sub-Saharan Africa

Aging in Sub-Saharan Africa PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309180090
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
In sub-Saharan Africa, older people make up a relatively small fraction of the total population and are supported primarily by family and other kinship networks. They have traditionally been viewed as repositories of information and wisdom, and are critical pillars of the community but as the HIV/AIDS pandemic destroys family systems, the elderly increasingly have to deal with the loss of their own support while absorbing the additional responsibilities of caring for their orphaned grandchildren. Aging in Sub-Saharan Africa explores ways to promote U.S. research interests and to augment the sub-Saharan governments' capacity to address the many challenges posed by population aging. Five major themes are explored in the book such as the need for a basic definition of "older person," the need for national governments to invest more in basic research and the coordination of data collection across countries, and the need for improved dialogue between local researchers and policy makers. This book makes three major recommendations: 1) the development of a research agenda 2) enhancing research opportunity and implementation and 3) the translation of research findings.

Disease and Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa

Disease and Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa PDF Author: Dean T. Jamison
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821363980
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 414

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Book Description
Current data and trends in morbidity and mortality for the sub-Saharan Region as presented in this new edition reflect the heavy toll that HIV/AIDS has had on health indicators, leading to either a stalling or reversal of the gains made, not just for communicable disorders, but for cancers, as well as mental and neurological disorders.

Tinderbox

Tinderbox PDF Author: Craig Timberg
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101560614
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 539

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Book Description
In this groundbreaking narrative, longtime Washington Post reporter Craig Timberg and award-winning AIDS researcher Daniel Halperin tell the surprising story of how Western colonial powers unwittingly sparked the AIDS epidemic and then fanned its rise. Drawing on remarkable new science, Tinderbox overturns the conventional wisdom on the origins of this deadly pandemic and the best ways to fight it today. Recent genetic studies have traced the birth of HIV to the forbidding equatorial forests of Cameroon, where chimpanzees carried the virus for millennia without causing a major outbreak in humans. During the Scramble for Africa, colonial companies blazed new routes through the jungle in search of rubber and other riches, sending African porters into remote regions rarely traveled before. It was here that humans first contracted the strain of HIV that would eventually cause 99 percent of AIDS deaths around the world. Western powers were key actors in turning a localized outbreak into a sprawling epidemic as bustling new trade routes, modern colonial cities, and the rise of prostitution sped the virus across Africa. Christian missionaries campaigned to suppress polygamy, but left in its place fractured sexual cultures that proved uncommonly vulnerable to HIV. Equally devastating was the gradual loss of the African ritual of male circumcision, which recent studies have shown offers significant protection against infection. Timberg and Halperin argue that the same Western hubris that marked the colonial era has hamstrung the effort to fight HIV. From the United Nations AIDS program to the Bush administration's historic relief campaign, global health officials have favored well-meaning Western approaches--abstinence campaigns, condom promotion, HIV testing--that have proven ineffective in slowing the epidemic in Africa. Meanwhile they have overlooked homegrown African initiatives aimed squarely at the behaviors spreading the virus. In a riveting narrative that stretches from colonial Leopoldville to 1980s San Francisco to South Africa today, Tinderbox reveals how human hands unleashed this epidemic and can now overcome it, if only we learn the lessons of the past.

Handbook of Disease Burdens and Quality of Life Measures

Handbook of Disease Burdens and Quality of Life Measures PDF Author: Victor R. Preedy
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9780387786667
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 758

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Book Description
This handbook features in-depth reviews of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), quality of life and financial measures for over 120 diseases and conditions. Its editors have organized this critical information for maximum access and ease of use, with abstracts, definitions of key terms, summary points, and dozens of figures and tables that can enhance the text or stand alone.