Policy and Health

This rich volume provides a comprehensive look at how policy leads to better health in Asia. Leading RAND thinkers, working in different disciplines, create an all-encompassing framework for students, scholars, and policymakers, clarifying what is known and still needs to be known about how policy and practice lead to better health outcomes in developing countries. Drawing on their broad experience, the authors explore the health effects of macroeconomic development, education, and technology. After making compelling arguments about the need for policymakers to use and demand evidence-based policy, they investigate the epidemiology of persistent infectious diseases and the rapid ascendancy of chronic diseases in the elderly, showing how effectively appropriate clinical medicine addresses illness and promotes well-being. Emphasis is placed on examining equity-improving solutions to ascertain how and where they have helped the poor, women, and other vulnerable populations. The book concludes with a discussion of politics, priorities, the private sector, and what role health departments should play to translate policy objectives into better health.