Global Health Care: Issues and Policies (review)

Global Health Care: Issues and Policies is an introductory text comprising four major sections: Section I, with six chapters comparing developed and developing countries with respect to health care policy, methods, and delivery; Section 2, with nine chapters on special health care issues, such as infectious diseases and mental health; Section 3, with three chapters on issues of reproduction, growth and aging; and Section 4, with chapters on four case studies. Edited by a professor of nursing at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, many of the chapters are written by faculty from that and other Georgia universities and staff of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With an Introduction and two introductory chapters by the editor, the book gives a broad overview of the current status of global health care. It is well suited as a text for introductory courses in global health at the undergraduate or masters level. It is quite readable and provides a good resource for independent study by health professionals or others wishing to obtain a basic grounding in global health in the 21st century.

Strengths of the book include its extensive endnotes, bibliography, indexing, and readability. A few deficiencies of the book include the surprising number of minor misstatements or typographical errors in the first two chapters and the chapter on maternal and infant health. Inadequate attention is given to the complex health effects of globalization. The focus seems overly limited to the North American perspective with only about six pages in the infectious disease chapter devoted to malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS combined, but (for example) a whole chapter on complementary and alternative medicine as viewed in North America. Clearly, supplemental reading will be needed to correct such imbalances when the book is used as a basic text.

In conclusion, Global Health Care: Issues and Policies is an up-to-date, introductory text that teachers at the college and masters level will find a useful option as they select course texts over the next several years.

Disclaimer

The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.