Global Health Inequities: Structures, Power and the Social Distribution of Health

Modern society has done much good for the health and well-being of people – the average global life expectancy has increased by more than two decades since 1950. However, not every group and nation experienced this to the same degree. Differences in health between countries have perpetuated and worsened, particularly over the last three decades (CSDH 2008). Life expectancy is often used as a marker of population health. Regionally, the health achievements enjoyed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries have already started happening in South Asia and elsewhere (Figure 7.1) – but have considerable distance still to go. The lack of improvement in life expectancy in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union is of concern. That life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa showed almost no change in a 30-year period must be considered a failure of the global public health community.