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 the World Statistics tables at the back of your atlas, find the life expectancy and 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 73.71 80.36 76.95 68
years years years
Australia 79.4 years 84.35 81.5 years 9
years
Bolivia 64.84 72.42 67.57 years 156
years years
Haiti 60.84 63.53 62.17 years 182
years years
Iceland 78.72 83.17 80.9 years 18
years years
Japan 78.96 85.72 82.25 years 5
years years
Malawi 50.93 52.48 51.7 years 211
years years
New Zealand 78.61 82.67 80.59 years 23
years years
Sweden 78.78 83.51 80.59 years 16
years years
Thailand 71.24 76.08 81.07 years 113
years years
United States 75.92 80.93 73.6 years 50
years years
Vietnam 69.72 74.92 78.37 years 129
years years
Zambia 51.13 53.63 52.36 years 208
years years
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) Give 3 reasons why you think the countries ranked higher in life expectancy live longer than the lower
ranked countries?
(iv) Fill in the last column of the table with each country’s GDP (a measure of the country’s wealth).
(v) Is there a correlation between the wealth of the country and life expectancy and access to doctors?
2. Look at the map of access to ‘Safe water’ on page 250
(i) How would you describe Australia, Europe and Japan’s access to safe water?
(ii) Which continent has the worst access to safe water?
(iii) For people living in the continent in (ii), what impact do you think this could have on their health?
3. Looking at the figure on calorie intake, (on projector) what do you think it means that Australia has an intake of
128% while Ethiopia has a daily intake of 73%?
Possible you tube 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