Global Health Promotion

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Building Capacity for Cardiovascular Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention and Control in Africa

Sponsored by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the International Union for Health Promotion and Education

 


RELATED AREAS

 

Surveillance

 

Risk Factors

 

Social Determinants of Health

 

Policy, Legislation and environmental change

 


Surveillance

 

More surveillance data and information on surveillance systems is available at the following pages:

 

 


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Risk Factors

 

Some of the major risk factors for Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD) and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs) include:

 

 

You can find more information on NCDs and risk factors at Infobase (WHO): http://www.who.int/infobase/report.aspx.

 

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Social Determinants of Health

 

The greatest cause of disease is attributed to the social conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age. In fact, almost all major diseases, including CVD and diabetes, are determined by a complex mesh of risk factors and these social conditions, known as social determinants of health (SDH), which are themselves shaped by the distribution of money, power and resources at all levels (global, national and local) and influenced by policy choices.

 

Health disparities within countries, and the marked health inequities between countries, are caused by: 

 

 

Together, the structural determinants and conditions of daily life constitute the social and economic determinants of health. These include income and social status, social support networks, education and literacy (including but not limited to health literacy), employment and working conditions, social environments, physical environments, life skills, personal health practices and coping skills, healthy child development, biology and genetic endowment, health services, gender, culture, among others.

 

In Africa, poverty, unemployment and homelessness continue to hamper development with almost 50% of Africans living in extreme poverty. In Kenya, for example, 56% of the people live under the poverty line. Inequalities are also a big problem, with a small percentage of the population controlling the majority of the wealth.

 

In 2009, the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health published a report clarifying SDH and the processes that influence the health and well-being of populations and providing recommendations to reduce health inequities - http://www.who.int/social_determinants/thecommission/finalreport/en/index.html. 

 

For more information on SDH, please go to:

 

 

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Policy, Legislation and Environmental Change

 

Effective policy making to tackle health challenges must address underlying social conditions that make disadvantaged people more vulnerable. Ministries of Health cannot address such health challenges alone but can take the leadership in advancing actions/policy on SDH across government departments and the wider society.


Some useful resources:

 

Health Policy & Environmental Change Toolkit - This toolkit includes publications, reports & online tools for public health practitioners and policy makers - http://www.dhpe.org/PolicyTools.htm.

 

Information on existing policies, legislations and programmes at country levels can be found at various National Ministries listed in the Partners & Links section.


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The production of this website has received financial support from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an Agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, under Cooperative Agreement Number CDC RFA DP07-708 on Building Capacity of Developing Countries to Prevent non-Communicable Diseases. The contents of this website are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC.