Issue 3: Health
What is the relationship between affluence and health?
Study Questions
- What are the diseases of affluence? What diseases has affluence eliminated?
- How has technology helped extend life and/or improve quality of life?
- What effects has affluence had on health care access and delivery?
- In what ways does affluence affect our definition of health?
- What impact does affluence have on the priorities for public health resource allocations?
- What influence has affluence had on the health of indigenous peoples?
- How do the indicators of health correlate with affluence?
- To what extent is it a paradox that affluent nations do not provide health care universally?
- What is the impact of immigration on health care systems of affluent societies?
- In what ways does affluence affect a person’s ability to eat a healthy diet?
- To what degree does the emigration of physicians and other health care workers from nations impact health care systems?
Honors in Action
Project description: Invite members of the local health care community to your college to discuss the diseases of affluence. What has led to problems of health associated with affluence? What are the challenges and lifestyle choices needed to avoid these problems? What are the environmental contributors to these diseases? What are some of the personal and societal consequences of not addressing these issues? Use this information and your continued research to prepare a PowerPoint presentation to share with other groups at your college, with local schools, and community groups. Post the slide presentation on your chapter’s website for future access. Hallmarks addressed: Scholarship, Leadership, Service, Fellowship
Project description: Research the ways in which affluent lifestyles contribute to a specific disease such as cancer and develop an awareness campaign for the campus or community. The American Cancer Society provides resources for education and awareness campaigns as well as guidance and resources for the chapter to contribute to organizing and leading a team event to fight cancer such as Relay For Life at www.cancer.org. Hallmarks addressed: Scholarship, Leadership, Service, Fellowship
Project description: Invite a biomedical ethicist to discuss the challenges of cutting-edge medicine in improving the quality of life. Open the discussion to your campus and local community. Should technologies such as stem cell research, cloning, and organ sales be available only to the affluent? What lessons about articulating a vision and managing conflict can you learn from researching this issue? Invite a leader of the local religious community and someone who teaches the philosophy of ethics to discuss the ethical and moral challenges these technologies and research in these areas present to individuals, communities, and nations. Hallmarks addressed: Scholarship, Leadership, Fellowship
Project description: Research cigarette litter and its toxic effects on the environment and ecosystems. Conduct an educational campaign based on your findings. Keep America Beautiful’s Cigarette Litter Prevention Program provides a step-by-step method for reducing cigarette litter. Learn more at www.preventcigarettelitter.org. Then organize a cigarette litter cleanup event on your campus or in your community. Consider displaying the cigarette litter and sponsoring a contest for students and faculty to guess the number of cigarette butts collected for a prize. Hallmarks addressed: Scholarship, Leadership, Service, Fellowship
Project description: Research historical events related to the paradox of affluence and health issues, such as the Food and Drug Act of 1906 and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study*. What was the impact on health of these historical events, and for whom? What are the ethical issues involved? How were the ethical issues resolved? Is regulation always effective? Who were the leaders responsible for the events and what can we learn from their leadership? Are there legislative acts that have been proposed or disease/drug studies underway for which raising public awareness would make a positive impact? Choose one and develop and implement a plan to educate and raise awareness. Hallmarks addressed: Scholarship, Leadership, Fellowship
Project description: As a chapter, look at health care systems in a variety of nations, both developed and emerging. How does the relative affluence of those nations affect their notions of health and their health care systems? What are some potential implications for universal health care in the United States you can draw from these studies? Using the results from your research, develop and implement a plan of action to lobby local, state, national, and global leaders on the issue of access to health care. Hallmarks addressed: Scholarship, Leadership, Fellowship
Project description: Invite an anthropologist and/or a health care professional who works with immigrant populations to discuss traditional definitions of health. What are some of the effects of the traditional American lifestyle on the nutrition and physical activity of these groups? What access to health care do these groups enjoy? What new ethical and moral concerns must health care professionals deal with in working with these immigrant groups? Share your research with science and social studies students at a local middle school. Hallmarks addressed: Scholarship, Leadership, Fellowship
Project description: Explore the green spaces for walking and outdoor activity on your campus and/or in your community. Meet with your college administration or city officials to encourage the development of that and additional green space. Offer to restore a vacant lot and create a community garden for neighborhood residents. Hallmarks addressed: Scholarship, Leadership, Service, Fellowship
Project description: As a chapter, read Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s book, Chasing Life: New Discoveries in the Search for Immortality to Help You Age Less Today (2006). Discuss the choices, challenges, and consequences of lifestyle choices on life extension. What changes can you make for you and your family to avoid the health problems associated with an affluent lifestyle? Develop and implement a personal plan to “chase life” over the course of the next year. Hallmarks addressed: Scholarship, Leadership, Fellowship
Project description: Research health care in a global community similar in size to your community. What do citizens of your chosen community get in terms of care? How does their care and access to that care compare when you consider the relative affluence of your communities? What characteristics of your communities affect day-to-day good health? To what extent do leaders in both your communities promote healthy lifestyles in terms of policy as well as community choices? Share your findings with fellow members by building a web site that highlights your research. Hallmarks addressed: Scholarship, Leadership, Fellowship
Bibliography
- Goodman, John, Gerald Musgrave, and Devon Herrick. Lives at Risk: Single-Payer National Health Insurance Around the World. 2004.
- The authors, favoring market-based solutions, address the problem of paying for American health care. They address the myths about the single-payer national health care systems of Canada, Australia and the U.K., investigate the politics and economics of health care systems, and propose ways to develop a better system in the United States.
- Harrison, Mark. Disease and the Modern World: 1500 to the Present Day. 2004.
- Harrison traces the history of disease from the rise of nation-states, illustrates the relationship between population growth, commerce, and political expansion and the impact of epidemic infectious diseases during the past five centuries. He also examines the ways in which disease treatment and prevention have changed from the Renaissance through the present era of scientific medicine.
- O’Neil, Edward, Jr. Awakening Hippocrates: A Primer on Health, Poverty, And Global Service. 2006.
- O’Neil explores the disparities of health care around the globe and argues that health care professionals are the crucial elements in finding a solution to the international paradox of affluence as it relates to health. He encourages people to become servant leaders in international health care.
- Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. 2006.
- Pollan presents a definitive account of the American way of eating by asking the question, “What should we have for dinner?” and then explores our consumption of processed food, organic food, alternative food, and food we forage ourselves. He also explores the co-evolutionary relationship between humans and the animal and plant species we depend on for food.
- Seale, Clive. Media and Health. 2002.
- Seale explores how health messages reported in the popular mass media are important influences in our lives, exposes media bias about health issues, and demonstrates the importance of media in our understanding of health and health care.
- Weil, Andrew. Health and Healing: The Philosophy of Integrative Medicine and Optimum Health. 2004.
- Dr. Weil, a pioneer in integrative medicine, addresses the range of alternative healing practices, including homeopathy, holistic medicine, osteopathy, chiropractic and Chinese medicine, presenting how they differ from conventional allopathic approaches.
* material is included in Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Development Studies: A Humanities Approach. This book is available online at www.ptk.org/recognitions/catalog/