HREQ 1930 Lecture Notes - Health Professional

• School: York University
• Department: Human Rights and Equity Studies
• Course: HREQ 1930
• Professor: Leo Stan

Document Summary

This reading examines the relationship between mortality and morbidity rates and how they affect one another. It focuses on the multidimensional nature of morbidity, and the important role that diverse cultural forces have on the patterns of behaviour during modernization. These forces involve rising health expectations on the part of ordinary people, including their ability to perceive illness and their willingness to seek professional help from medical professionals. Currently, reported morbidity levels are highest in the wealthiest countries, as are the per capita amounts of money spent to secure health and control disease (fuchs 1990). In general, it is not high-mortality developing countries which have high levels of morbidity, and low-mortality (generally developed) countries which have low levels of morbidity, but quite the opposite. Morbidity levels decline with mortality it is unlikely that the health transition in the developing countries will lead to better health, if better health means lower reported morbidity levels.