Health around the world
In Australia we would generally consider ourselves to be healthy and we have access to good doctors, hospitals and
healthcare. Some of us may take this for granted and realize that not all of the people in the world enjoy access to good
health care. Today we will take a closer look at people’s health around the world.
1. Life expectancy, (the age people will live to) and access to Physicians (Doctors, GP’s, Physio’s) are an excellent
measure of a country’s health.
(i) Using World Statistics websites such as www.cia.gov OR www.infoplease.com , find the life expectancy and
no. of Physicians per 1000 people for the following countries in the table. Then rank them from highest to
lowest.
Country Male Female Average Rank Physicians Rank
Argentina 72 80 76 6 301 4 7511
Australia 78 83 81 2 250 5 22074
Bolivia 63 68 66 9 73 8 1036
Haiti 52 54 53 10 25 11 437
Iceland 78 82 80 3 347 2 32449
Japan 78 85 82 1 201 7 39195
Malawi 42 41 42 11 1 13 165
New Zealand 76 82 79 4 222 6 14984
Sweden 78 83 81 2 305 3 28912
Thailand 70 74 72 7 30 10 2399
United States 75 81 78 5 549 1 36789
Vietnam 68 74 71 8 54 9 501
Zambia 39 40 40 12 7 12 366
Answer the following questions in your journal. Explain your answers in full sentences.
(ii) Does your table show a link between life expectancy and access to physicians? Explain
(iii) The life expectancy is based on the amount of physicians per people some countries have access to more
than others
(iv) Give 3 reasons why you think the countries ranked higher in life expectancy live longer than the lower
ranked countries?
(v) 3 reasons why some countries life expectancy is higher is the access to doctors clean water and
immunzations and stuff like that.
(vi) Fill in the last column of the table with each country’s GDP (a measure of the country’s wealth).
(vii) Is there a correlation between the wealth of the country and life expectancy and access to doctors?
(viii) The correlation between the wealth and the life expectancy of countries is that the wealthier they are the
more money they have to spend on doctors and education.
2. Find country by country statistics on access to safe drinking water
(i) How would you describe Australia, Europe and Japan’s access to safe water?
(ii) I would describe Australia, Europe and japans access to safe water pretty well off considering some
other countries.
(iii) Which continent has the worst access to safe water?
(iv) I would say Africa has the worst access to safe water.
(v) For people living in the continent in (ii), what impact do you think this could have on their health?
(vi) Well since your body is mostly made up of water and since they don’t have access to safe clean water
that would have tremendous impact on their health because they are unable to give their body’s the
right nutrients unlike places such as Australia where we have the best.
3. Looking at the figure on calorie intake (on the next page). What do you think it means that Australia has an
intake of 128% while Ethiopia has a daily intake of 73%?
4. It means that our calorie intake is higher because we eat and spend more on food than Ethiopia
Possible youtube clips for world health
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swpO979AuC8&feature=related poverty in world, pics to music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i22DvoyuCOc&feature=related poor vs rich, don’t complain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEnlrE4iMBU charity water central Africa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXR4Z_NBD-E&feature=related UNICEF water day