CHAPTER 2 KEY ISSUE 3
Why Do Some Places Face Health
Challenges?
Big Question
• What challenges do women, mothers, the young, and the
elderly face throughout the stages of the demographic
transition model? How are the challenges different in
developed and developing countries?
Key Terms
• Maternal Mortality Rate
• Infant mortality rates
• Population Pyramids
• Dependency Ratio
• Graying
• Epidemiology
• Epidemiologic transition
• Pandemics
Health and Gender
• As countries enter later stages of the Demographic Transition Model, issues
of health are of great concern to the booming populations that live there
• Females face especially challenging health risks in these societies
• Gender-based selection is huge problem in countries like China and India
Health and Gender
• These countries have nearly 700,000 female babies go “missing” per year…
over 117 million since 1980
• The babies are either aborted, killed in infancy, or are moved and not
accounted for
Health and Gender
• The reason for this cultural preference for boys and government policies
that limit the number of children a family can have
• This has led to a higher ratio of boys to girls being born (sex ratio of
112:100 as opposed to the norm of 105:100)
Health and Gender
• Mothers are at risk to in developing countries
• Maternal Mortality Rate is described as the annual number of female
deaths per 100,000 live births from any cause related to or aggravated by
pregnancy or its management
• This rate is higher in in Asia and Africa…100 deaths per 100,000 births
compared to 10 out of 100,000 in North America and Europe (28 in U.S.)
Health and Gender
• These same countries also have high infant mortality rates which
measures the annual number of deaths of infants under 1 year of age
(4 deaths per 1,000 births in Europe and 64/1,000 in Sub-Saharan Africa)
• Advanced medical facilities and highly-trained personnel significantly limit
the number of deaths to mothers and infants
Health and Aging
• The percentage of people in different age groups varies as countries go
through different stages of the DTM
• Those in stage 2 have higher numbers of young people and those in stage 4
have higher numbers of the old
Health and Aging
• Population Pyramids are bar graphs that display the percentage of a place’s
population for each age and gender
• The pyramid is broken down into 5-year age groups, starting with 0-4 with males
on the left and females on the right
• With a higher percentage of young or old, a country will have a higher
dependency ratio
Health and Aging
• This ratio is determined by the number of people under 15 or older than 65
compared to the number in their productive years who can support those
who can’t
• This number is higher in developing countries than in developed (47% in
Europe compared to 85% in Sub-Saharan Africa)
Health and Aging
• Some countries differ on who is dependent, old or young (Africa 14:1 young
to elderly ratio and the opposite in Japan with 3:1 elderly to young)
• Whether it’s a high number of children in a country or the “graying” of a
population with a high number of elderly, it puts a significant strain on
governments and those from ages 16-65 to provide for the “dependents”
Medical Services
• Health care varies widely around the world
• Developed countries use part of their wealth to protect people who are
unable to work
• Public assistance is available to the poor, elderly, sick, disabled, young, and
old
Medical Services
• The amount spent on health care is much higher per person in developed countries
($1,000 to $5,000 per person) than in developing (less than $100 per person)
• Governments in those regions vary as well (15% of GDP in developed spent on
healthcare compared to less than 5% in developing)
• This level of spending is seen in the medical facilities and number of trained physicians
in these countries (50 hospital beds and 30 physicians per 10,000 people in Europe and
20 beds and 5 physicians per 10,000 in Sub-Saharan Africa)
Medical Services
• Most developed countries (with the
exception of the U.S.) provide health
care at little or no cost to citizens but
this is becoming increasingly difficult
to maintain as their populations
continue to age and need more health
care
• In developing countries, the challenge
of keeping people healthy isn’t just
financial but is also becoming more
environmental
The Epidemiologic Transition
• Epidemiology is the branch of
medical science concerned with
the incidence, distribution, and
control of diseases
• The epidemiologic transition
focuses on distinctive health
threats at each stage of the
demographic transition model
• Epidemiologists rely heavily on
geographic concepts such as
scale, space, and connection to
control and prevent diseases
The Epidemiologic Transition
• Stage 1 - Pestilence and Famine – “Natural checks” on human population
came in the form of infectious or parasitic diseases. The deadliest example
of this was the Bubonic Plague in the 14th century that killed 25% of the
world’s population
The Epidemiologic Transition
• Stage 2 - Receding Pandemics – This stage sees the reduction of
widespread pandemics or diseases that spread over a wide geographic
region. Improved sanitation, nutrition, and medical services during the
Industrial Revolution reduced the spread of deadly diseases such as
Cholera. Countries in Stage 2 still deal with these problems (ex. Haiti) but
are getting better at dealing with them
The Epidemiologic Transition
• Stage 3 – Degenerative Diseases – This stage sees a decrease in infectious
diseases and an increase in chronic disorders associated with aging. Heart
disease and cancer are the most common and deadliest of these chronic
disorders and we see the highest rates in developed countries
The Epidemiologic Transition
• Stage 4 – Delayed Degenerative Diseases – This stage sees heart disease
deaths and cancers killing less people through bypass surgeries and
radiation therapies. Reductions in use of tobacco and alcohol also reduce
the number of deaths. However, the big problem in this stage becomes
sedentary lifestyles and overconsumption of non-nutritious foods leading
to obesity
Big Question & Key Terms
• What challenges do • Maternal Mortality Rate
women, mothers, the • Infant mortality rates
young, and the elderly face • Population Pyramids
throughout the stages of
• Dependency Ratio
the demographic
transition model? How are • Graying
the challenges different in • Epidemiology
developed and developing • Epidemiologic transition
countries?
• Pandemics