World Health Organization (WHO)

Examples of World Health Organization (WHO) in the following topics:

• Gender

  • The World Health Organization defines gender as socially constructed ideas about behaviors, actions, and roles characteristic of each sex.
  • The World Health Organization (WHO) defines gender as the result of socially constructed ideas about the behavior, actions, and roles characteristic of each sex.
  • Further, gender equality plays a central role in education as well as in reproductive and maternal health.
  • Kathaleen Sikes, a Navy nurse, listens to a young woman during a routine check-up at the Couva District Health Facility in Trinidad and Tobago.
  • Examine the role gender plays in health care and healthy lifestyles, especially for women

• Introduction

  • The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and does not consist only of the absence of disease or infirmity" (source) Though this is a useful definition, some would consider it idealistic and non-realistic because using the WHO definition classifies 70-95% of people as unhealthy.
  • The WHO definition also overlooks the fact that several factors influence both the definition of health and standards of health.
  • In 2000, health care costs paid to hospitals, doctors, diagnostic laboratories, pharmacies, medical device manufacturers and other components of the health care system, consumed an estimated 14 percent of the gross national product of the United States, the largest of any country in the world.
  • For the G8 countries (eight of the most developed countries in the world) the average is about nine percent.
  • Importantly, this may be due to the United States' interesting position as - since The Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973 - a private, for profit system of managed care rather than a public good non-profit system of health promotion.

• Global Health

  • Global health is the health of populations in a global context and transcends the perspectives and concerns of individual nations.
  • Global health is the health of populations in a global context and transcends the perspectives and concerns of individual nations.
  • The application of these principles to the domain of mental health is called global mental health.
  • The major international agency for health is the World Health Organization (WHO) .
  • Other important agencies with impact on global health activities include UNICEF, World Food Programme (WFP), United Nations University - International Institute for Global Health, and the World Bank.

• Health Care Policy

  • According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an explicit health policy achieves several things: it defines a vision for the future; it outlines priorities and the expected roles of different groups; and it builds consensus and informs people.
  • In fact, the United States has a higher infant mortality rate than most of the world's industrialized nations.
  • Nevertheless, as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has pointed out, the total U.S. public expenditure for this limited population would, in most other OECD countries, be enough for the government to provide primary health insurance for the entire population.
  • It mandates that all residents who can afford to purchase health insurance must do so, and it provides subsidized insurance plans so that nearly everyone can afford health insurance.
  • The law also provides a "Health Safety Net Fund" to pay for necessary treatment for those who cannot find affordable health insurance or for those who are not eligible.

• Health Care Policy

  • The government primarily provides health insurance for public sector employees. 60-65% of healthcare provision and spending comes from programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, the Children's Health Insurance Program, and the Veterans Health Administration.
  • According to the World Health Organization (WHO), total health care spending in the U.S. was 15.2% of its GDP in 2008, the highest in the world .
  • The Health and Human Services Department expects that the health share of GDP will continue its historical upward trend, reaching 19.5% of GDP by 2017.
  • Preventive care is typically provided to many people who would never become ill, and for those who would have become ill, it is partially offset by the health care costs during additional years of life.
  • This graph shows the fraction of gross domestic product (GDP) devoted to health care in a number of developed countries in 2006.According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United States spent 15.3 percent of its GDP on health care in 2006.The next highest country was Switzerland, with 11.3 percent.In most other high-income countries, the share was less than 10 percent.

• Public Health

  • In the United States, the front line of public health initiatives is state and local health departments.
  • A social gradient in health runs through society, with those who are poorest generally suffering poor health.
  • Public health plays an important role in disease prevention efforts in both the developing world and in developed countries, through local health systems and non-governmental organizations.
  • The World Health Organization (WHO) is the international agency that coordinates and acts on global public health issues.
  • Most countries have their own government public health agencies , sometimes known as ministries of health, to respond to domestic health issues.

• World Health Trends

  • World health research considers global patterns of interaction between people, products, money and information as they affect health trends.
  • In 1948, the member states of the newly formed United Nations gathered together to create the World Health Organization (WHO).
  • WHO initiatives have evolved and expanded throughout the years, however.
  • While the WHO is the key international agency for monitoring and promoting global health, many other groups also participate.
  • Maternal health is one of the priorities of global health organizations, such as the World Health Organization.

• Different Health Care Systems Around the World

  • Health care systems, on the global scale, is best defined via the World Health Organization's definition: "A health system consists of all organizations, people and actions whose primary intent is to promote, restore or maintain health.
  • This includes efforts to influence determinants of health as well as more direct health-improving activities.
  • The World Health Organization has been actively measuring a variety of performance indicators to determine an overall ranking system for health care on a global scale.
  • German health care is regulated by the Federal Joint Commission, a public health organization which leverages governmental health reform bills to generate new regulations.
  • China has a great deal of variance in quality and accessibility, with hospital wait times for the poor (depending on severity) taking many hours (sometimes days) compared to the rich, who are admitted immediately.

• Mental Health

  • Different classes have different levels of access to treatment and encounter different mental health stressors.
  • The World Health Organization defines mental health as "a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community. "
  • Members of different social classes often hold different views on mental health.
  • Similarly, different social classes have different levels of access to mental health interventions and to information about mental health.
  • Define mental health and explain why it is regarded as a socially constructed concept

• Paying for Medical Care

  • This section discusses the costs of healthcare and the different approaches to health care that have been taken by governments around the world.
  • In contrast, doctors who are salaried have no financial incentive to perform unnecessary tests.
  • Health Maintenance Organizations or (HMO) types of health insurance are often criticized for excessive cost-cutting policies that include accountants or other administrators making medical decisions for customers.
  • Rather than allowing such decisions to be made by health care professionals who know which procedures or treatments are necessary, these health plan administrators are dictating medical practice through their refusal to cover claims.
  • This approach to health care is the most common and popular among developed (and developing) nations around the world today.