Awareness of the differences in patterns of health and disease around the world and how these have been influenced by historical and geographical factors.

Assignment 1: Case study

Assignment type: Case Study

Size or length of assessment: 1250 words

Unit learning outcomes

1. Demonstrate the following knowledge and understanding

Awareness of the differences in patterns of health and disease around the world and how these have been influenced by historical and geographical factors.

2. Demonstrate the following skills and abilities

Describe how the health of the global population is promoted and protected by analysing how global, regional and local health systems address key economic and social determinants of health.

What am I required to do in this assignment?

There are 3 tasks required in this case study assignment

Task 1: You must choose a country and provide an overview of the main health issues/challenges in the country.

You can choose to 2-3 diseases that are contemporary health issues in the chosen country. You are NOT required to describe the diseases themselves (i.e. what they are) but you need to describe the scale and the nature of the health challenges (e.g. social group that are most affected). You can also discuss how the issues are tackled by the government.  Your overview should be based on sound and recent data from the World Health Organisation, as well as studies or reports published by the World Bank or Non-Governmental Organisations such as the Red Cross, Médecins Sans Frontières, etc.

Task 2 : You must discuss the health system in the chosen country (i.e. how it was created and changed).

Provide a historical account of key health events or trends in the country, and describe the evolution and constitution of its health systems. You will need to present a concise historical account, or timeline about these key events (e.g.  Civil wars, droughts, outbreaks of disease etc.), how those events were dealt with and how the health system changed as a consequence. Students may also discuss examples of health policy changes/reforms or current issues within the health system. The priority in this section is to describe how and why the country’s current health system and policies are functioning as they are.

Task 3: You must predict the future health of the population in the country using relevant health indicators (e.g. you  may assess the country’s performance using life expectancy, infant mortality rates, etc.).

In order to assess a country’s performance, you would need to do some trend analysis (trend over a period of time – could be 5, 10, 15 years). You should include at least two points in time (e.g. comparing 2009 and 2019) to discuss whether the health of the population has improved or not in recent years (e.g. for the last ten years).  There is no need to compare with other countries (if you do, the purpose of the comparison must be related to discussing/emphasising the chosen country’s performance perhaps against similar countries in a relevant WHO region). Students can also relate their argument to current political, economic and/or social issues in the country but they need to say ‘how’ the issues are likely to affect the health system/policy (e.g. staff shortage, funding, meeting SDG targets etc.)

You must start your work by answering this learning outcome: Awareness of the differences in patterns of health and disease around the world and how these have been influenced by historical and geographical factors.