Sick Societies

Occupational Medicine This is a fascinating sociological and political view of the structure of the food and health industries in the modern world and how they are responsible for the epidemic we are seeing of obesity and its associated diseases.

Professor Shah Ebrahim, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK Stuckler and Siegel's book expertly pulls together the essential data and ideas needed to combat chronic diseases. It will be a mandatory reader for courses in global health.

Professor Ronald Labont, Institute of Population Health, University of Ottawa, Canada From health system financing to the financialization of the global economy, there is scarcely a dimension of our chronic disease pandemic that this book leaves unexplored. There is no better or more timely a text than this one from which to take that step.

Professor Robert Beaglehole, University of Auckland, New Zealand This is a powerful, important and ultimately subversive book. It situates the origins and response to the global epidemic of chronic (noncommunicable) diseases as issues of social justice. This book is a must- read for all engaged with chronic diseases, especially, for people not yet engaged whether they be health professionals, development experts or concerned citizens.

International Journal Of Epidemiology Sick Societies is a highly ambitious and accessible book that succeeds in bringing together key material to make the case for accelerated action to address the global chronic disease epidemic. I would highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in chronic disease, and as a key text for courses in global health and public health.

EpiAnalysisOccupational Medicine With one out of every three deaths in the world now being caused by four types of chronic disease-heart disease, respiratory disease, common cancers, and type 2 diabetes-what path should public health practitioners take to stem the rising human and financial cost of non-communicable diseases? David Stuckler and Karen Siegel have edited a new data-driven tome that addresses this question better than any text I've seen to date-providing essential reading both for epidemiologists and public health campaigners looking for data and guidance in their movements for healthier foods, cleaner air, and access to essential medicines and primary care medical homes.

<br>David Stuckler, MPH, PhD, is an economic sociologist and epidemiologist at Harvard University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas, his MPH from Yale University and his PhD from Cambridge before becoming a Research Fellow at the London School and receiving his appointment to the Department of Sociology at Oxford. He has been widely-recognized as an expert on economics and global health, winning grants from the World Health Organization and UNICEF on the political economy of healthcare, and from the European Centers for Disease Control on the impact of economic crises on public health. He has taught at Yale, Cambridge and Oxford on the subjects of global politics, economics and health as well as quantitative methods. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Economist, Guardian, New Scientist, BBC News, Scientific American, NPR, and Slate, among other print, radio and television venues. <br>Karen Siegel, MPH, received her BA from the University of Pennsylvania and her MPH from Yale School of Public Health. She has written articles on environmental and policy approaches to prevent chronic diseases in India and globally, as well as on diabetes advocacy issues and chronic disease curricula improvement, in Health Affairs, The Lancet, Globalization & Health, and Nursing Standard. Previously, she played a major role in the development of the Oxford Health Alliance's Community Interventions for Health as part of the study's evaluation team, based at Matrix Public Health Solutions, Inc. and later at Oxford University. She is actively involved in the development of the Young Professionals Chronic Disease Network, an online community with membership that spans over 150 members in 20 countries worldwide.<br>

Preface: Epidemiology of modern society; 1. Evaluating the health burden of chronic diseases; 2. Sick individuals, sick populations: the societal determinants of chronic diseases; 3. Social and economic consequences of chronic diseases; 4. Comprehensive strategies to reduce the burden of chronic diseases; Part 1: Management of chronic disease; Part 2: Prevention of chronic diseases; 5. Politics of chronic disease; Part 1: Political economy of chronic disease; Part 2: Creating a social movement to raise the priority of global chronic disease; 6. Activities of the Private Sector; Part 1: The current and future role of the food industry in the prevention and control of chronic diseases: the case of PepsiCo; Part 2: The corporate play book, health, and democracy: the snack food and beverage industry's tactics in context; 7. Comparative case studies from Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa; Part 1: Chronic diseases in Brazil; Part 2: Chronic diseases in China; Part 3: Chronic diseases in India; Part 4: Chronic diseases in Mexico; Part 5: Chronic diseases in South Africa; 8. Responding to the global challenge of sick societies; Appendix: Resources for Action