1.

Define health measure and explain how it differs from life expectancy
State one reason why HALE is a better measure of the health of a
population than child mortality

Health measure is the evaluation of life expectancy, infant mortality rate
and child mortality, HALE (health adjusted life expectancy), calorie intake,
access to safe water and access to health services as indicators of health.

HALE is an indicator of overall health of the population, combining
measures of age, mortality and sex specific healthy data into a singe
statistic, while child mortality only measures the conditions of the child
such as household income and nutrition.

2. Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the following other idiocies
used to measure the health of populations. Please use life expectancy,
calorie intake, and access to safe water, infant mortality rate, access to
health services

Advantages Disadvantages
Life expectancy Indicator of health and
predicts the expected age
an individual will live up
till
Only considers length
of life
Overlooks number of
years spent living in
ill health
Provides average
impression of
mortality (e.g. a child
dying at 1 year will
pull down the
average)
Calorie intake A measure of the amount
of energy derived from
food
Does not take
nutrition
consumption/ calorie
requirement into
account (e.g. different
work scopes will
require different
amounts of energy)
Access to safe water It is directly related to
poverty and the inability
of governments to
provide satisfactory
sanitation systems
Does not give an
overall assessment
but just one aspect
Infant mortality rate Reflect the social,
economic and
environmental
conditions. It measures
human welfare by
reflecting household
Data collected from
household surveys,
national birth and
death registration
systems are often
unreliable
income, nutrition,
maternal age, education,
housing condition and
sanitation
This is added on with
civil wars and
migration
Access to health services Measures number of
doctors, hospital beds or
health expenditure per
10 000 population
Does not give an
overall assessment
but just one aspect

3. Discuss the connections between affluence and health

Affluence is the state of being generously supplied with an abundance of money
while health encompasses a whole range of factors such as life expectancy, infant
mortality rate, HALE, calorie intake, access to safe water and health services.
There are common conceptions that the richer you are, the healthier you are.
However, this may not always be the case. To compare the two sides, we are
going to use the obesity in Mexico to highlight why affluence may not necessarily
lead to health and the diabetes management in India to show how wealth
continues to be an important factor in ensuring a healthy lifestyle.

Mexico is ranked 14
th
as the largest economy