SASKATOON (Staff) – There is no single, most important factor responsible for healthy people, an academic told a federal-provincial conference here in February.
Government funding has been shifting from hospitals and doctors to health promotion and community care. But people are puzzled by the array of factors that make up the new concepts of population health, said keynote speaker Greg Stoddart of McMaster University in Hamilton.
Economics a big factor
While a woman’s choice to not smoke or the fact her parents lived to old ages may have a bearing on her health, her economic status is probably even more crucial now, said Stoddart.
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He said life expectancy for Russian men has fallen from 65 years in 1987 to 59 years in 1993 as economic and social systems have been in turmoil.
In contrast, Japanese life expectancy tops the world and this has been due partially to its economic gains since the Second World War, and to its strong emphasis on maternal and child health, said Stoddart.
Japan only spends about seven percent of its gross domestic product on health care. Canada spends 10 percent and the United States, 14 percent.
“A less well known, but potentially more significant observation is that Japan has one of the narrowest, some would say most equitable, income distributions in the developed world.”
Issues are linked
In an interview, Stoddart said the connection between health and economic equality is obvious.
“We don’t have to sell the idea. People see that having a job and watching their child be nourished are good things.”
But economics, like all factors such as the country’s social safety net, job status or crime rate must be put in context, said Stoddart.
“Unemployment is bad for your health, but it’s not as bad if everyone around you is also unemployed.”
