Human Capital:

Education and Health in

Economic Development
8.6 HEALTH MEASUREMENT AND DISEASE BURDEN

• World Health Organization (WHO), defines

health as “a state of complete physical, mental,
and social well being and not merely the absence
of disease and infirmity.”
8.6 HEALTH MEASUREMENT AND DISEASE BURDEN

• An alternative measure of health promoted by the

WHO is the disability-adjusted life year (DALY).
8.6 HEALTH MEASUREMENT AND DISEASE BURDEN

• The disability-adjusted life year (DALY) is a

measure of overall disease burden, expressed as
the number of years lost due to ill-health,
disability or early death. It was developed in the
1990s as a way of comparing the overall health
and life expectancy of different countries.
8.6 HEALTH MEASUREMENT AND DISEASE BURDEN

• Using a DALY measure, a World Bank study

calculated that about one-quarter of the global
burden of disease was represented by diarrhea,
childhood diseases including measles, respiratory
infections, parasitic worm infections, and malaria
—all major health problems in developing
countries.
 HEALTH CHALLENGES FACED BY
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
• Absolute Poverty • Ascariasis
• Malnutrition • Cholera
• Aids • Dengue
• Malaria • Leprosy
• Tuberculosis • Other Parasites
• Respiratory Infections • Other Diarrheal
• Hepatitis B Diseases
8.6 HEALTH MEASUREMENT AND DISEASE BURDEN

HIV/AIDS
The WHO reported in 2013 that since the AIDS
epidemic began, close to 70 million people have
been infected with the HIV virus; and about half of
them—about 35 million people—have already died
of AIDS.
8.7 HEALTH, PRODUCTIVITY AND POLICY

Productivity
• The devastating effects of poor health on child
mortality are clear enough. But do poor health
conditions in developing countries also harm the
productivity of adults?
8.7 HEALTH, PRODUCTIVITY AND POLICY

Productivity
• Studies show that healthier people earn higher
wages.
• Health and nutrition do affect employment,
productivity, and wages, and very substantially so
among the poorest of the poor.
8.7 HEALTH, PRODUCTIVITY AND POLICY

Health Systems Policy

• In the WHO’s definition, a health system is “all
the activities whose primary purpose is to
promote, restore, or maintain health.”
8.7 HEALTH, PRODUCTIVITY AND POLICY

Health Systems Policy

• Health systems include the components of public
health departments, hospitals and clinics, and
offices of doctors and paramedics.
• Outside this formal system is an informal network
used by many poorer citizens, which includes
traditional healers.
8.7 HEALTH, PRODUCTIVITY AND POLICY

Health Systems Policy

• It has long been understood that some developing
countries’ health systems are far more effective
than others in achieving health goals.
CONCLUSION
Health and education play pivotal roles in economic
development, as both inputs into production
enabling higher incomes and outputs directly
affecting human well-being.