scholarly journals Round table: Measuring values: enhancing how WHO monitors and reports on health and well-being

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Round Table ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Member States ◽  
Life Course Approach ◽  
Qualitative Evidence ◽  
Health Concepts ◽  
Health And Well Being

Abstract Many concepts that are key to public health policy-making are conceptual and often values-based. How such concepts can be implemented by Member States, and how the effectiveness of this implementation can be measured and reported, remains an critical challenge that all major monitoring frameworks are faced with, from Health 2020 (WHO’s European policy framework for health and well-being), to the Sustainable Development Goals for Agenda 2030. In 2016, WHO established a project to interrogate how four key values-based public health concepts can be better measured and reported on, to increase the accountability of Member States towards these concepts. Based on the priority areas of Health 2020, the concepts which were chosen are: resilience;empowerment;life-course approach; andwhole of society approach. Four Health Evidence Network (HEN) synthesis reports were commissioned from leading experts and have now been published, synthesizing the best available evidence and grey literature on these concepts, and proposing a variety of quantitative and qualitative approaches to measuring them. The workshop will be organized as round table workshop. It will bring together the authors of all four reports to provide an overarching thematic discussion on how to enhance the monitoring and reporting of values-based public health concepts. In addition, it will also present an opportunity to discuss the findings of the reports, in particular how qualitative evidence can be deployed to make up for the shortcomings of quantitative indicators. The role of culture in informing these values-based concepts will also be discussed. The session will be chaired by Nick Fahy, who will set the scene and provide some background to the WHO Europe project on enhancing monitoring and reporting. Jane South will then give overview of the HEN synthesis report on measuring resilience, followed Glenn Laverack, who will talk about the HEN report on measuring empowerment. Mark Hanson and Scott Greer will review their respective HEN reports on measuring the life-course approach and whole-of-society approach implementation. Each speaker will be asked to illustrate their presentation with a case study which demonstrates how qualitative evidence can enhance the monitoring and/or reporting of the various concepts. During the discussion, a number of key questions will be discussed by the panel with input from the audience. How can actionable measurement strategies be derived from existing research regarding values based concepts?How can meaningful, country-level reporting mechanisms be expanded to include quantitative and qualitative health information and indicators?What is the role of cultural contexts in mediating these (and other) values-based concepts? Key messages Many key public health concepts are inherently values-based. However, this is often not acknowledged, making it challenging to monitor and report on them. Qualitative evidence can be key to designing more effective ways to measure the implementation of values-based public health concepts. Jane South Contact: [email protected] Glenn Laverack Contact: [email protected] Mark Hanson Contact: [email protected] Scott Greer Contact: [email protected]

scholarly journals Building Health Throughout the Life Course. Concepts, Implications, and Application in Public Health

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Practice ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Life Course Approach ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Health And Well Being ◽  
Improve Health

Building Health Throughout the Life Course elucidates how health develops and changes throughout the life course, and how the use of the life course approach among public health practitioners can ensure that health as a human right is achieved for all individuals. It describes the life course vision of health that focuses not only on diseases and their consequences, but rather on achieving long, healthy, active, and productive lives.  The book consists of three stand-alone parts. Part 1, “Concepts”, aims to illuminate the complexity of health through the understanding of the life course approach. It can be used to familiarize oneself with the evolution and meaning of the life course, which serves as a basis for effective public health practice. Part 2, “Implications”, identifies the implications for the operationalization of the life course approach in public health. It translates the technical language of the life course literature to understand how the application of the life course approach requires changes in health systems, policies, research, and practice. Part 3, “Application in Public Health”, identifies key opportunities to strengthen the adoption of the life course approach in public health practice. It describes concrete, evidence-based actions to improve health and well-being through the promotion and generation of skills throughout the life course.  This book aims to help decision-makers and public health professionals to understand the life course meaning and concepts, which is essential to comprehend how health develops and changes throughout the life course. The book also describes how the life course model allows us to address health disparities by generating mechanisms to improve health and well-being by promoting the vision of health as the product of a series of experiences that contribute to or detract from health in the near and long term.

scholarly journals Advancing environmental public health in Latin America and the Caribbean

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Marcelo Korc ◽  
Fred Hauchman
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Leadership Role ◽  
The Public ◽  
Environmental Public Health ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Health And Well Being

This paper highlights the important leadership role of the public health sector, working with other governmental sectors and nongovernmental entities, to advance environmental public health in Latin America and the Caribbean toward the achievement of 2030 Sustainable Development Goal 3: Health and Well-Being. The most pressing current and future environmental public health threats are discussed, followed by a brief review of major historical and current international and regional efforts to address these concerns. The paper concludes with a discussion of three major components of a regional environmental public health agenda that responsible parties can undertake to make significant progress toward ensuring the health and well-being of all people throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

scholarly journals Deregulation and the Assault on Science and the Environment

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 347-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan M. Samet ◽  
Thomas A. Burke
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Environmental Pollution ◽  
Reasoned Action ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Research To Policy ◽  
Health And Well Being

The quality of the environment is a major determinant of the health and well-being of a population. The role of scientific evidence is central in the network of laws addressing environmental pollution in the United States and has been critical in addressing the myriad sources of environmental pollution and the burden of disease attributable to environmental factors. We address the shift away from reasoned action and science to a reliance on belief and document the efforts to separate regulation from science and to remove science-based regulations and policies intended to protect public health. We outline the general steps for moving from research to policy, show how each has been undermined, offer specific examples, and point to resources that document the enormity of the current efforts to set aside scientific evidence.

Investment for health and well-being – Supporting health through a life course approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (suppl_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
E Besnier ◽  
M Dyakova ◽  
C Grey ◽  
K Ashton ◽  
A Schwappach ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Life Course Approach ◽  
Health And Well Being

Investment for health and well-being – Supporting health through a life course approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (suppl_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
E Besnier ◽  
M Dyakova ◽  
C Grey ◽  
K Ashton ◽  
A Schwappach ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Life Course Approach ◽  
Health And Well Being

Religion, Aging, and Public Health

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Levin ◽  
Ellen Idler
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Perinatal Care ◽  
Geriatric Medicine ◽  
Healthcare Delivery ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Age Cohorts ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Health And Well Being

Religion, in both its personal and institutional forms, is a significant force influencing the health of populations across the life course. Decades of research have documented that expressions of faith and the practice of spiritual pursuits exhibit significantly protective effects for physical and mental health, psychological well-being, and population rates of morbidity, mortality, and disability. This finding has been observed across sociodemographic categories, across nations and cultures, across specific disease outcomes, and regardless of one’s religious affiliation. A salutary religious effect on health and well-being is especially apparent among older adults, but is also observed across generations and age cohorts. Moreover, this association has been persistently found for various religious indicators, including attendance at worship services, prayer and other private practices, subjective feelings of religiosity, and numerous measures of religious behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and experiences. Finally, a protective or primary preventive effect of religion has been observed in clinical, epidemiologic, social, and behavioral studies, regardless of research design or methodology. Faith-based organizations also have contributed to the health of populations, in partnerships or alliances with medical institutions and public health agencies, many of these dating back many decades. Examples include congregational health promotion and disease prevention programs and community-wide interventions, especially targeting the health and well-being of older congregants and those in less well-resourced communities, as well as faith–health partnerships in healthcare delivery, public health policymaking, and legislative advocacy for healthcare reform. Religious denominations and institutions also play a substantial role in global health development throughout the world, individually and in partnership with national health ministries, transnational medical mission organizations, and established nongovernmental agencies. These efforts focus on a wide range of goals and objectives, including building public health infrastructure, addressing ongoing environmental health needs, and responding to acute public health challenges and crises, such as infectious disease outbreaks. Constituencies include at-risk populations and cohorts throughout the life course, and programming ranges from perinatal care to maternal and child healthcare to geriatric medicine.

Oxford Textbook of Nature and Public Health

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Urban Trees ◽  
Green Spaces ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Vector Borne ◽  
Multiple Health ◽  
Health And Well Being

Much literature on environmental health has described threats from the environment. The Oxford Textbook of Nature and Public Health: The Role of Nature in Improving the Health of a Population focuses on the role of nature for our health and well-being by demonstrating how we can gain multiple health benefits from nature, and how much we risk losing by destroying our surrounding natural environment. Providing a broad and inclusive picture of the multifaceted relation between human health and natural environments, the books covers all aspects of this relationship ranging from disease prevention; through physical activity in green spaces, to ecosystem services like climate change adaptation by urban trees preventing heat stress in hot climates. Nature’s potential hazardous consequences are also discussed including natural disasters, vector-borne pathogens, and allergies.

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