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The PHA - an informed, collaborative and strong advocate for public health.

From the journals

The Lancet – third series on chronic diseases

This third series on chronic diseases focuses on the "collective failure" in addressing the global state of chronic diseases. The articles look at what prevents chronic diseases from receiving the global attention they need, as well as what systems, policies, and interventions (and their barriers) are needed to reduce the burden of chronic diseases in low- and middle-income countries.

The PHA’s co-Public Health Champion 2010, Professor Robert Beaglehole, has once again contributed to this series of articles.

Access the entire series, including commentaries and articles at: www.lancet.com/series/chronic-diseases-and-development.

Managing the Health effects of Climate Change
Health starts where we live, learn, work and play

This excellent publication provides information on what words, phrases and framing works to help others to understand about what it means to be healthy and what influences health and wellbeing.

www.rwjf.org/vulnerablepopulations/product.jsp?id=66428 (the messaging guide is 38 pages, in colour, but it prints reasonably in black and white, so you may want to check set your printer settings)

While it has been developed in the US for their particular population most of it is highly relevant to us In Aotearoa.

Strategy for reducing health inequalities in the UK

In 2009 the World Health Organization adopted the report of their Commission on the Social Determinants of Health and called on countries to take action to reduce health inequalities.

Now, in the UK, a report has been produced for the English Secretary of State for Health to propose the most effective evidence-based strategies for reducing health inequalities in England from 2010. The strategy will include policies and interventions that address the social determinants of health inequalities.

This rewiew and report was chaired by Prof Sir Michael Marmot, who previously chaired the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants.

www.ucl.ac.uk/gheg/marmotreview/FairSocietyHealthyLives

Understanding Health Inequalities
Professor Hilary Graham, Department of Health Sciences, University of York – 2009

US Publisher: www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/openupusa/html/0335234593.html

Chapter 1 available at: www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/openup/chapters/9780335234592.pdf

UK Publisher : http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/0335234593.html

"...Thoroughly updated and revised, this new edition of Understanding Health Inequalities, edited by Hilary Graham, remains a welcome and timely contribution. Replete with thoughtful essays on health inequities analyzed in relation to societal structure, social position and geography . the volume provides important insights into how class, racial/ethnic, gender, and spatial health inequities are produced – and how they can be rectified.

The world economic crisis launched by the implosion of unregulated financial markets in the fall of 2008 only serves to underscore the volume's central conclusion: that government regulation and intervention, premised on a commitment to equity, is essential for tackling health inequalities. Health professionals, students, and any and all working for healthy and sustainable ways of living will benefit from this collection..." Nancy Krieger, Harvard School of Public Health, USA.

Hilary Graham and her contributors outline the enduring link between people’s socioeconomic circumstances and their health and tackle questions at the forefront of research and policy on health inequalities. These include:

• How health is influenced by circumstances across people's lives and by the areas in which they live
• How health is simultaneously shaped by inequalities of gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic position
• How policies can impact on health inequalities.

Contributors: Karl Atkin, Mel Bartley, G. David Batty, David Blane, Bo Burstrom, Danny Dorling, Anne Ellaway, Hilary Graham, Barbara Hanratty, Kate Hunt, Saffron Karlsen, Catherine Law, Sally Macintyre, James Nazroo, Naomi Rudoe, Bethan Thomas, Rachel Thomson, Margaret Whitehead.

ISBN: 9780335234592
Division: Open University Press Pub Date: AUG-09

World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change
Published September 15, 2010

Website: http://go.worldbank.org/FTD88BBDV0

"...Poverty reduction and sustainable development remain core global priorities. A quarter of the population of developing countries still lives on less than $1.25 a day. One billion people lack clean drinking water; 1.6 billion, electricity; and 3 billion, adequate sanitation. A quarter of all developing country children are malnourished. Addressing these needs must remain the priorities both of developing countries and of development aid—recognizing that development will get harder, not easier, with climate change.

Yet climate change must urgently be addressed. Climate change threatens all countries, with developing countries the most vulnerable. Estimates are that they would bear some 75 to 80 percent of the costs of damages caused by the changing climate. Even 2°C warming above preindustrial temperatures—the minimum the world is likely to experience—could result in permanent reductions in GDP of 4 to 5 percent for Africa and South Asia. Most developing countries lack sufficient financial and technical capacities to manage increasing climate risk. They also depend more directly on climate-sensitive natural resources for income and well-being. And most are in tropical and subtropical regions already subject to highly variable climate.

Economic growth alone is unlikely to be fast or equitable enough to counter threats from climate change, particularly if it remains carbon intensive and accelerates global warming. So climate policy cannot be framed as a choice between growth and climate change. In fact, climate-smart policies are those that enhance development, reduce vulnerability, and finance the transition to low-carbon growth paths.

A climate-smart world is within our reach if we act now, act together, and act differently than we have in the past:

• Acting now is essential or else options disappear and costs increase as the world commits itself to high-carbon pathways and largely irreversible warming trajectories.
• Acting together is key to keeping the costs down and effectively tackling both adaptation and mitigation.
• Acting differently is required to enable a sustainable future in a changing world. In the next few decades, the world’s energy systems must be transformed so that global emissions drop 50 to 80 percent..."

Violence prevention: the evidence

World Health Organization (WHO) and Liverpool John Moores University have launched Violence prevention: the evidence, an eight-part series of briefings on the evidence for interventions to prevent.

Website: http://www.preventviolence.info/

By spotlighting evidence for the effectiveness of interventions, Violence prevention: the evidence provides clear directions for how violence prevention funders, policy makers and programme implementers can boost the impact of their violence prevention efforts.