A public health approach to the “Food-Malnutrition-Economic Recession” complex
Fecha
1988
Tipo
capítulo de libro
Autores
Mata Jiménez, Leonardo
Título de la revista
ISSN de la revista
Título del volumen
Editor
Resumen
The authors in this volume disagree as to whether the current economic
world recession and its accompanying adjustment policies affect nutrition
and health. Based on the data presented throughout this volume
and the discussions at the Takemi Symposium, I am not convinced that
current world economic conditions have significantly changed the nutritional
state and survival of children in less developed countries—except
in certain regions of Africa. This is not to say that such an effect
does not exist—economic adjustments made by nations at the macro
level and by families at the household level might have acted as a buffer.
Any serious attempt to correlate economic phenomena with nutrition
and 'Tiealth must take into account certain fundamental variables not
immediately obvious to economists and policymakers. Discussions of
this topic, for example, may suffer from problems in data collection
which are particular to the field of public health. In addition, if the
concept of malnutrition is to be used in a discussion of economics, it
must be precisely defined in biological terms, and what we know of its
causes must be understood and considered. Health factors, including
illness, and other sociological factors which cause malnutrition need to
be described. To understand these variables we must step outside the realm of policymaking and the discipline of economics. This chapter
discusses some of these variables and their effects on analyses of health,
nutrition and economic policy.
Descripción
Artículo científico -- Universidad de Costa Rica. Instituto de Investigaciones en Salud,1988
Palabras clave
maternal education, Mycoplasma, Diarrhea, Nutrition