Life expectancy in U.S. comparing to the third world countries, Africa.
Global Health Resource Management
This assignment is designed to provide an opportunity for each student to explore
financial and human resource allocation for a designated global health issue.
Each student must select a topic that is a problem in another part of the world. It may
be a health problem in the United States as well, but the emphasis of your forum
discussion should be on a global health problem or illness, and how it is a problem in a
specific part of the world. The other aspect to keep in mind is that the emphasis of the
thread should be the financial and human resource allocation to this problem. This
would include foundations, charitable organizations, governmental and non-
governmental agencies such as those listed, or countries allocating financial and
perhaps personnel or other resources to help alleviate the problem.
You should also discuss the progress being made and identify what resources would be
needed to solve the health problem that are not currently being appropriated.
For this assignment, the student will:
� Look at various resources that discuss global health issues and initiatives that
allocate human and financial resources to the particular health issue. In addition, check
the websites for the World Health Organization, UNICEF, private foundations such as
the Carter Foundation, Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation, etc.
� Select a global health issue for a specific country, other than the United States.
� List your health care illness or issue, including country in the Forums ‘Global
Resource Mgmt. Topic Selection Area’. You should list the country and the issue -i.e.
H.I.V./Aids in Nigeria, or Tuberculosis in Mexico.
Scholarship Expectations
You are clinical nurse scholars in the making. You are the advanced practice nurses
and members of the highly literate profession of advanced practice nurses who will
chart the future of health care. Good writing ability is as much a required skill for
nursing in advanced practice as performing clinical functions. Therefore, precision and
scholarship is expected in all assignments.
Organized and logical progression of idea; effort and attention to detail is evident;
communicates effectively in all aspects of discussion. Correct grammar, spelling, and
word choice. Liberal number of references including peer reviewed journals. References
are current. Appropriately paraphrased, and acknowledged. Correct use of APA.
Global Health Resource Management: Life expectancy in U.S. Comparing to the
Third World Countries, Africa.
Life expectancy has been reducing over the years over most parts of the world due to
several lifestyle choices. The US and Africa have seen life expectancy drastically dip and
intervention by healthcare professionals, government bodies and non-governmental
organizations is inevitable. This paper will first, elaborate on the life expectancy situation and
the factors affecting the rate of life expectancy in these two geographical locations. Secondly,
Global Health Resource Management 2
outline the financial and human resource interventions by the different actors and lastly
discuss the impact of the intervention including what extra resources are required to address
the prevailing problem.
The high mortality rates of people above the age of fifty years in the US is one of the
primary reasons why it has continuously lagged behind in life expectancy comparisons of
developed countries. The health care system has been receiving blame for the statistics
instead of the life limiting lifestyle choices that people make (Preston & Ho, 2009). Life
expectancy at birth may reduce further due to reasons such as increased global warming,
depletion of mineral resources and a reduction in per capita crops production (Roper, 2012).
The bleak US life expectancy report was juxtaposed with the largest health care
expenditure in the world but with almost the lowest life expectancy among the developed
countries apart from Qatar (White out Press, 2012). It is reported that health becomes poorer
by the day across all ages in the US. Currently men have a life expectancy of 75 while
women have 81 years factoring in all the 9 ill health factors including infant deaths and those
resulting from sexually transmitted diseases (Newscientist, 2013).Africa’s average life
expectancy has increased to about 54 years as a result of improved attention to HIV/AIDs
related illnesses. It is reported that life expectancy in Sub-Saharan Africa consistently
increased between 1950 and 1990 before dropping significantly due to deaths from HIV/Aids
related diseases (Cotton, 2011). This low life expectancy is also exacerbated by the low
economic power of African countries whose economies largely operate on foreign aid thus
making healthcare inaccessible for most poor Africans.
The surest way to increase life expectancy is through preventative measures. The US
has established that its primary causes of low life expectancy are unhealthy eating habits, air
pollution and drug and alcohol abuse. The US Environmental Protection Agency has been
committing up to $25 billion per year to air pollution controls since 1975. It is believed that
Global Health Resource Management 3
regulating ambient levels of PM2 improves life expectancy (Harvard School of Public
Health, 2012).
In an effort to increase life expectancy over the years, the government has passed bills
to address unhealthy eating. In 2009, the house bill and the Senate majority bill were passed
to compel all fast food companies to clearly display labels indicating calorie levels so that
buyers are aware as they pick foods from the menus or displays. This is a preventative
measure that deters people from taking foods with excess calories count as it is one of the
major causes of obesity and consequently low life expectancy. The intervention has been
successful in New York in food outlets such as Mc Donalds. In the same year, Reid’s Bill
committed $ 25 million towards initiatives to mitigate obesity in children. Grants are offered
to doctors and public health personnel for health promotion campaigns advocating for healthy
eating choices. Another initiative to curb obesity was one by the Democrats seeking to levy a
federal tax on sugary drinks and sodas and it has been embraced by a number of states in the
US (Garber, 2009).
In March 2012, the US government unveiled the first ever nationwide government
funded campaign against smoking. It was part of the restriction on tobacco use program by
Barrack Obama which also includes food and drug administration regulation and lasted for
twelve weeks and cost $54 million. The program that is was run by Center for Disease
Control also included more funds dedicated to tobacco cessation initiatives as well as the use
of clear and large cautionary labels on cigarettes (McKay & Esterl, 2012). A similar
campaign was launched this year in March following the success of the 2012 version and it is
believed that many lives and dollars will be saved.
Some of the primary causes of low life expectancy in poverty which limits
accessibility to health care systems, poor state of the public health facilities, increased
HIV/AIDs infection and poor maternal and infant health care. The international community
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has greatly assisted in providing HIV/AIDs funding all over Africa. The US in particular
provides Presidents Emergency Plan for Aids Relief to a number of African countries and its
2009 expenditure for a 6 year period was amounting to $63 billion. This second phase intends
to provide direct support to over four million people who are already on treatment, prevent 12
million fresh infections, care for 12 million people who may either be infected or affected,
provide prevention of mother to child transmission of pregnant HIV positive women as well
as train 140,000 health care workers on HIV/AIDS (Averting HIV and AIDs, n.d.).
The fund was established in 2003 with the aim to care for people infected by
HIV/AIDS, to treat those infected and to support preventative campaigns. By 2008, 2.1
million people in PEPFAR eligible countries which include most of Africa received
treatment, mortality caused by infection by the virus also reduced by 10.5% which is
tantamount to 1.2 million saved lives (Walensky & Kuritzkes, 2009). PEPFAR had
prevented infections in 240,000 infants by 2010 (Averting HIV and AIDs, n.d.).
More than 500 million deaths in Africa every year account women due to childbirth
complication and during pregnancy. To curb this problem, UK has commits foreign aid to
assist in maternal health and child care interventions and one such intervention is the £17
million that was awarded to South Africa to improve the quality of maternal health as well as
reducing child mortality (Zuma, n.d.). There are 2 global campaigns dubbed Every Woman
Every Child and the Partnership for Maternal, New born and Child Health that press on
governments, corporate leaders and civil society organizations to improve maternal and infant
health care. Kenya in particular has waived all charges for maternal and new born healthcare
in public hospitals and maternities and Africa as a whole has begun to see a decline in
maternal deaths (Musinguzi, 2012).
The intervention strategies adopted to increase life expectancy both in the US and in
Africa have shown minimal benefits. For instance, the antismoking campaign which resulted
Global Health Resource Management 5
in 200,000 people reaching out to health care professional for assistance in quitting is
substantial yet it has no direct effect on reducing mortality as only the determined people
manage to quit. The government and the non-governmental actors need to apply more drastic
measures such as highly subsidized or even free rehabilitation programmes. This will go a
long way in ascertaining that life expectancy shall be improved.
In Africa on reducing prevalence of HIV/AIDs PEPFAR has made it possible for
people infected or affected to live more comfortably. However, more effort and resources are
required to hammer in preventative strategies in the population. This is because new
infections among married people and youth are on the rise despite the different prevention
campaigns in some parts of Africa. The funding must focus more on prevention if life
expectancy is to improve. The same goes for improving maternal health and child health care.
World Health organization had predicted that Africa would lose up to $45 billion
between 2001 and 2010 due to maternal deaths. It said that over the period, Africa would lose
almost $ 22billion in productivity and $23 billion in due to disabilities. There is need for
more commitment, better policies, more resource allocation and more partnerships in safer
motherhood programs (Oluwole, n.d.). It is imperative that actors health care focused actors
place more radical measures to address obesity, air pollution, drug and alcohol abuse,
HIV/AIDs prevention and maternal and infant health. There is a need for more funds and
personnel to run the programs for life expectancy to increase.
References
Averting HIV and AIDs. (n.d.). PEPFAR and the Global Health Initiative.
Cotton, D. (2011, August 16). Life Expectancy in Africa: Back to the Future. Retrieved April
11, 2013, from Annals of Internal Medicine:
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Garber, K. (2009, November 25). Congress Fights Obesity with Health Care Bills: Both the
House and Senate Bills Mandate Calorie Counts at Fast Foods Restaurants.
s
Harvard School of Public Health. (2012, December 3). Declining air Pollution levels
continue to Improve Life Expectancy. Retrieved April 11, 2013, from Harvard School
of Public Health:
McKay, B., & Esterl, M. (2012, March 15). US Unveils Antismoking Campaign. Retrieved
April 11, 2013, from The Wall Stree Journal:
Musinguzi, J. (2012, March 27). Maternal Healthcare: It is Time the World Delivered on
Women and Girls. Retrieved April 11, 2013, from Africa Review.
Newscientist. (2013, January 17). Life Expectancy Lower in US than Other Rich Countries.
Retrieved April 11, 2013, from Newscientist: http://www.newscientist.com/
article/mg21729003.500-life-expectancy-lower-in-us-than-other-rich-countries.html
Oluwole, D. (n.d.). Poor Maternal Health Care to Cost Africa $ 45 Billion Over Ten Years.
Retrieved April 11, 2013, from World Health Organization.
Preston, S. H., & Ho, j. Y. (2009). Low Life Expectancy in the United States: Is the Health
Care System at Fault? Nber Working Paper Series, 1-48.
Roper, L. d. (2012, September 30). Life Expectancy in the United States. Retrieved April 11,
2013, from L.David Roper Interdisciplinary Studies:
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Walensky, R. P., & Kuritzkes, D. R. (2009). The Impact of the President’s Emergency Plan
for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) Beyond HIV and Why It Remains Essential. Oxford
Journal, 272-275.
White out Press. (2012, March 26). 2012 Life Expectancy, US Second to Last. . (n.d.). What Does Improving Maternal Health Care Mean to Africa? A focus on
the Future. Retrieved April 11, 2013, from The Center for Global health and
Diplomacy