Abstract
The burden of disease falls unequally upon the world’s peoples. Mortality gaps between geographical areas and rich and poor countries are widening. Health inequities are significantly a product of the wider distributive inequities that are of concern in global justice. Various economic, social, and health sector variables operating at the global and domestic levels contribute to these global health inequalities. Groups of countries with high adult or under-five mortality, for example, have on average lower mean incomes, more extreme poverty, lower levels of investment in human and physical resources, higher inflation, less trade, less effective disease prevention, and worse educational outcomes and more severe health risk factors.1 Health inequalities are not limited to the global arena; within countries, they are widespread and often dramatic. Differences in life prospects by socioeconomic status, even within wealthy countries such as the United States, threaten the viability and sustainability of domestic economic systems.
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© 2012 Douglas A. Hicks and Thad Williamson
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Ruger, J.P. (2012). Global Health Justice. In: Hicks, D.A., Williamson, T. (eds) Leadership and Global Justice. Jepson Studies in Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137014696_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137014696_8
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