Analyzing Health Issues using Political Economy of Global Health Framework

To begin, please review the assigned reading and class/tutorial notes for the 14 September recorded lecture and session on Chapter 3 - “Political Economy of Health & Development” and the 5 October recorded lecture and class session on Chapter 7 - “Health Equity and the Societal Determinants of Health.” “Political economy of global health framework,” from Chapter 3 (also included below).

Then review the pieces listed in Section B and select only one (1) of the four options for the critical political economy of health exercise described below.

Each of the four options addresses a health issue that can be analyzed using a critical political economy of health framework. This approach allows you to deepen and contextualize the analysis of health issues by linking a particular health issue to its broader, multi-level, societal, political, and economic determinants.

Once you have made your selection, re-review the piece in detail. Using the “Political economy of global health framework,” you should identify, describe, and analyze: 1) one health issue (for example, an illness) addressed in the option selected; and 2) the global and national; national and community; and community and family determinants of that health issue, as addressed therein (see Section C, “A Brief Guide to Political Economy of Global Health”)

A Brief Guide to the Political Economy of Global Health Framework The following is a very brief guide to the framework below. It is not meant to provide exhaustive definitions of the various levels of determinants; instead, it offers a general overview to help get you started. Make sure to refer to the assigned reading and class notes for this section. Community and family determinants of global health are manifested in the day-to-day lives of people. This is the level at which most conventional global health issue analyses start and stop and, consequently, where most “interventions” occur. For example, if the health issue is the high proportion of low birthweight babies, one possible community and family determinant may be a lack of protein consumption (undernourishment) by pregnant women.

National and community determinants of health shape community and family determinants and may be reflected at multiple levels. Some of these are measured as social indicators, such as poverty or illiteracy rates. Continuing with the low birthweight example, a possible national/community determinant is the inability to consistently meet basic household needs (including nutritional needs) due to inadequate redistributive mechanisms.

Global and national determinants of global health are the more abstract macro processes and structures that lead to community and family determinants of health. These are the pervasivesocial and structural patterns that result in large part from uneven political, economic, cultural,and ideological power relations (e.g. gender relations, race relations, class relations). Global andnational determinants of low birthweight babies could involve women’s position and treatment as subordinate to men and/or a country’s neoliberal free trade pact with other countries that has resulted in a decline in well-paying, secure jobs.

Please note that there is a certain amount of overlap among these three categories; indeed, both national and community determinants reside in two categories. This overlap is due to the possibility of determinants being shaped by multiple factors and at multiple levels simultaneously. For example, school attendance/educational attainment may be a determinant at both the community/family level (e.g., community mobilizing for school infrastructure andfamily/household ability to send children to school) and the national/community level (e.g., funding and standard-setting for schools and policies encouraging school completion). For this assignment, when describing and analyzing determinants that are found in several categories, you should indicate which category is the most appropriate and why.

Please organize your analysis as follows using appropriate headings and sub-headings:

Description of the health issue you have selected that is addressed in your chosen piece (i.e., who?, what?, where?, when?, how?)

Description and analysis of the global and national determinants of the health issue (please select 2-3 determinants and discuss in depth)

Description and analysis of the national and community determinants of the health issue (please select 2-3 determinants and discuss in depth)

Description and analysis of the community and family determinants of the health issue (please select 2-3 determinants and discuss in depth)

Remember to ground your analysis in the content and context in which the piece is set. In other words, if the article/podcast discusses an issue linked to an urban, working-class community in Angola, then you must ensure that your analysis relates to that particular setting/context.