Low income, social growth, and good health : a history of twelve countries / James C. Riley

Author: Riley, James C.
Published: Berkeley : University of California Press ; New York : Milbank Memorial Fund, [2008]
Copyright Date: ©2008
Physical Description: xvi, 229 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
Additional Creators: Milbank Memorial Fund

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Series

California/Milbank books on health and the public ; 17.

Contents

Life expectancy and income among the first countries to begin health transitions -- Which countries should be studied? -- A colonizer and the country colonized : Japan and Korea -- Very low income is not a barrier : Sri Lanka -- Two neighbors : Panama and Costa Rica -- Capitalism and communism, dictatorship and democracy : Cuba and Jamaica -- The Soviet and Chinese models of social development -- Oil-rich lands -- The Latin American case : income inequality and health in Mexico -- Limiting mortality from fecal disease, malaria, and tuberculosis.

Summary

This book studies the experience of twelve countries that have broken through the limits that low incomes so often impose on human survival: China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Oman, Panama, the former Soviet Union, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Most made impressive gains in life expectancy in the decades after 1920, and by 1960 nearly matched the rich countries in survival. Findings make clear that all of these countries enjoyed significant social growth, all invested in public health, and all gained the people's participation in the effort to improve their own lives and health. This innovative analysis suggests an alternative model of growth in which the measure of a nation's success is not its per capita income but the life expectancy of its population.

Subject(s)

ISBN

9780520252868 (cloth : alk. paper)
0520252861 (cloth : alk. paper)

Bibliography Note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 183-219) and index.

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