Theodore H. MacDonald - Böcker

In today's world 'health' means far more than merely the absence of illness. In Rethinking Health Promotion Theodore H. MacDonald sweeps away the confusion surrounding the function and position of health promotion. He argues that, far from being a modern innovation, health promotion has existed as a distinct and separate enterprise for as long as biomedicine and cautions against health promotion becoming organized merely an off-shoot of medical care.Drawing on the author's experience as a World Health Organisation consultant, the book also tackles the question of whether health promotion has relevance on an international scale or whether it is purely a eurocentric phenomenon. Against this background individual chapters explore universal factors such as sexual health, diet, unemployment, alcohol and tobacco use.With its critical and historical approach this book breaks new ground in assessing health promotion and will be stimulating reading for the wide variety of students and professionals studying health promotion.

In today's world 'health' means far more than merely the absence of illness. In Rethinking Health Promotion Theodore H. MacDonald sweeps away the confusion surrounding the function and position of health promotion. He argues that, far from being a modern innovation, health promotion has existed as a distinct and separate enterprise for as long as biomedicine and cautions against health promotion becoming organized merely an off-shoot of medical care.Drawing on the author's experience as a World Health Organisation consultant, the book also tackles the question of whether health promotion has relevance on an international scale or whether it is purely a eurocentric phenomenon. Against this background individual chapters explore universal factors such as sexual health, diet, unemployment, alcohol and tobacco use.With its critical and historical approach this book breaks new ground in assessing health promotion and will be stimulating reading for the wide variety of students and professionals studying health promotion.

This work contains forewords by Desmond M. Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus, Cape Town, South Africa and Mogobe Ramose, Chairperson and Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, University of South Africa. "Health, Trade and Human Rights" shows how a policy of 'free' rather than 'fair' trade increasingly undermines Third World health. It clearly illustrates how the looming environmental crisis combined with growing levels of health inequity will have adverse effects and details precisely how the 'basic human rights' enshrined in the UN Charter have gradually become subsidiary to the dictates of free trade, enforced by the World Trade Organisation. This groundbreaking new book argues the need for impartial, data-based, and transnational arbitration of equity in health and other human rights - and suggests how this might be accomplished without violence to national rights, with an emphasis on 'regional free trade'. "Health, Trade and Human Rights" provides vital, thought provoking information for general readers with an interest in the Third World and social welfare. Academics and students studying development, international studies and public health will find it invaluable, as will healthcare professionals, international healthcare organisations, care agencies, and international charities. Policy makers and shapers in communities and government will find the content revelatory as will political activists and those with an interest in equality and globalisation. '[The book] criticises the basis, the method and the extent to which the politics of wealth continues to undermine and violate the right of the poor to good health. The combination of experience with scientific rigour is presented in accessible everyday language. It is seductive; inviting the curiosity of the reader to last until the very end of the book. MacDonald's message is clear and unambiguous: war is no longer the father of all things. Instead, justice is the mother of all peace.' - Mogobe Ramose, in his Foreword. 'Astonishingly accessible, informing and inspiring. Statistically sound, penetratingly. accurate, admirably balanced. Theodore MacDonald writes with passion, as well as with sense. Much of what he has to say is drawn from his own experience working as a medical doctor and a mathematician in a broad range of the world's poorest nations. But overarching that is a powerful insight into social and economic issues, along with well-honed skills as a communicator. I am pleased to recommend this splendid book.' - Desmond M. Tutu, in his Foreword.

This book contains a Foreword by Allyson Pollock, Professor and Head, Centre for International Public Health Policy, University of Edinburgh. Healthcare students, practitioners and researchers need a sound basis for making valid statistical inferences from health data. To make the best use of statistical software, it is necessary to understand how probabilistic inference works. This book explains that, along with the various ways statistical data can be described and presented. It is designed to develop insight rather than simply the mechanical skills found in other textbooks. This book is specifically designed to underpin the concepts of statistics and epidemiology. It is practical and easy to use and is ideal for people who can feel uncomfortable with mathematics. 'Excellent. A great primer for all students and research workers engaged in learning how to use statistical ideas in public health. It sets out the core concepts and explains them clearly, using worked examples as illustration. If followed carefully, the engaged reader should be able to use the standard statistical software packages intelligently and sensitively. It will stimulate the public health student, in whatever context, and new researchers, to approach the enterprise with enhanced confidence in interpreting and coherently explaining their findings.' - Allyson Pollock, in the Foreword.