Globalization's Dual Role in Global Health: Causes and Cures

This essay delves into the multifaceted relationship between globalization and global health, exploring how increased interconnectedness impacts the well-being of populations worldwide. The introduction defines globalization and its influence on global health, followed by an overview of globalization's impact on various health aspects. The main body examines globalization as a catalyst for both communicable and non-communicable diseases, including the spread of diseases like Coronavirus and the rise of unhealthy lifestyles. Furthermore, the essay highlights how globalization offers potential solutions, such as increased health awareness, technological advancements in healthcare, and international collaborations like the WHO. The essay concludes by summarizing the dual nature of globalization's effects, recognizing its role as both a cause of and a potential cure for global health problems. The essay emphasizes the importance of understanding this complex relationship to address and mitigate global health challenges effectively.

GLOBALISATION IS BOTH
THE CAUSE AND THE
CURE OF GLOBAL
HEALTH PROBLEM

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Overview of globalization and global health...............................................................................1
Globalization as a cause of increasing global health problems-..................................................2
Ways in which Globalization has worked as a cure to global health problem............................4
Summary......................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Globalization is a word which is used for describing growing independence of global
population, economy and culture due to which trading of products and services, information,
technology, people, investment etc. across the border has increased (Forster and et. al., 2019). It
can also be said that globalization has increased movement of people or goods among different
countries globally. It has helped organizations to operate in more than one country at lower
operational cost. Not only this, it has also made availability of resources much easier for
companies. It has made much easier for people to travel and live across the globe in different
country because of which interaction of people of different nations has also increased. People
can exchange their knowledge, information, culture, language and many other thigs with others.
But it also has some adverse negative impact upon people and their health as well. This essay
will emphasis upon cause and the cure of global health problems due to globalization. It will
focus upon evaluation of globalization and global health as concepts, impact of globalization
upon societies and their health.
MAIN BODY
Overview of globalization and global health
Globalization has brought various kinds of changes within ways in which people live,
ways in which organizations do business. Not only this, it has increased scope of expansion for
organizations. Global integration has brought various kinds of development within transportation
as well. Due to this, various countries have signed international trade agreement or treaties in
order to increase movement or exchange of goods and services with other nations (Jani and
Dholakia, 2020). In order to enhance trade, reduce poverty, increase development within under
developed or developing countries, organizations like international global governmental
organizations have emerged in which 89 countries are working together so that cross nation trade
can be increased and global trade can be reduced. But if globalization has some positive impact
then it has some adverse effects well. Due to this, change in people living life style of people has
increased (Jani, Joshi and Mehta, 2019). Access to advance technology has made lifestyles of
people unhealthy. Not only this, it has influenced people, their thinking, made access to unhealth
products much easier like cigarettes for smoking, alcohol and many more. It has further
increased spread of life-threatening diseases both communicable and non-communicable as well.
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Global health can be defined as kind of concept that helps in explaining health of people
or population in global context. Globalization is one of the main reasons because of which global
health has been impacted. It has increased the gap or bridge between rich and poor. Rich are
becoming richer and por are becoming poorer. Due to this, it can be said that globalization has
increased threat of poverty, adoption of unhealthy lifestyle, consumption unhealthy products and
increasing spread of diseases because of which global health of people has been impacted
drastically (García-Dorado and et. al., 2019). Globalization can be seen as a large entity because
of which various kinds of barriers like social, technological, economic and cultural barriers have
been removed. As a result, it has made availability of advance technologies, healthcare facilities,
increasing global awareness much easier.
Globalization as a cause of increasing global health problems
Above concept of globalization clearly explains that it is good of economies but it has
defiantly increased health related problems. Advancement in technology, introduction of new
equipment’s and techniques has brought various kinds of changes within life style of people. Due
to this, dependency of people and organizations upon advance technologies increased drastically.
It has further resulted in increasing damage to environment. This advancement and easy access
to technologies globally has increased emission of green houses gases, increased temperature etc.
Due to this global health of people is getting impacted (Labonté, 2018). So, it can be said that
environment is degrading continuously due to globalization. It has indirectly impacted global
health of people because continuously degrading environment has resulted in degrading health of
people. Today a greater number of people are suffering from various kinds of allergies like dust
allergy etc. More number of people have skin allergy or have sensitive skin. Degrading
environment has also increased occurrence of diseases like skin cancer due to increasing number
of passing ultra violet rays.
This essay will clearly explain ways in which globalization has caused increase in global
health problems. Both of these terms are inter connected to each other. Due to reduction of
technological, social, cultural, economic barriers health of people is getting impacted globally
both directly and indirectly. Globalization has resulted in increasing spread of both
communicable and non- communicable diseases (Bradbury-Jones and Clark, 2017). One of the
recent examples of spread of communicable disease due to globalization, globally is
Coronavirus. Spread of Coronavirus started from China. But due to easy global transportation,
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this disease started spreading globally to other countries as well and today there is not even a
single country that as succeeded in stopping spreading of Coronavirus. There are various kinds
of communicable diseases that had emerged from one country and spread across other nations as
well. Spreading of communicable diseases is one of the main and global issues and is one of the
major threats to global health (Schnall, Dobson and Landsbergis, 2016). Globalization is one of
the major reasons because of which international trade, transportation has increased that has
resulted in fast spreading of communicable diseases. Another example of spreading
communicable disease is cholera. Cholera is one of those diseases that emerged from India and
now every year more than 4 million cases of cholera are recoded globally. It is rapidly spread
through contaminated food and water. Today this disease has become another global health
problem whose main case of spreading is globalization. It is a major problem of countries that
have poor access to clean and hygienic water and food.
Another factor that can help in explaining ways in which Globalization has become in
cause of global health problem is social and cultural awareness (Qiu, 2017). People today are
getting more and more influenced watching others smoking, drinking alcohol etc. Media, internet
etc. has made it much easier for people to interact with other globally. Not only this for business
meetings or other reasons people meet other people who are culturally different. In order to
explain this factor, social learning theory can be used. This theory says that people can learn new
behaviour by observing others. People learn or develop smoking or drinking alcohol behaviour
by watching or interacting with others. Globalization has increased interaction and
communication between culturally different people because of which adoption of unhealth habits
of smoking, alcohol drinking etc. along people has increased drastically. These unhealthy habits
have bad influence on their overall health of people (Tajuddin, 2019). Not only this, due to
increasing globalization manufacturing, selling and trading of cigarettes and alcohol globally has
increased drastically because of which availability of these products has increased. Due to this
disease like cardiovascular diseases, lungs diseases have increased. Western society and their
culture are also another factor because of which global health problems has increased.
Globalization has removed cultural barrier and increased interaction among people globally.
Western culture has influenced non-western culture women to focus upon losing weight in order
to enhance their beauty. This desire to lose weight and enhance beauty has increased health
related problems like lack of required nutrition, reduced immune system etc. because of which
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they become prone to various kinds of different kinds of health- related problems like becoming
anaemic etc.
Globalization has also resulted in increasing number of noncommunicable diseases which
is a significant factor in increasing global mortality rate (Ergin and Akin, 2017). More than 70
percent of global death are due to non-communicable diseases like cancer, diabetes. Increasing
number of non-communicable diseases is because of increase tobacco use, alcohol misuse,
luxurious or sedentary lifestyle, consumption of unhealthy food and beverages or in other words
unhealthy diet are some of the main reason of increasing non-communicable diseases.
Globalization has increased access to unhealthy products and advancement in technology has
influenced lifestyle of people because of which chances of communicable diseases have
increased.
Ways in which Globalization has worked as a cure to global health problem
Globalisation has not only been a root cause of increasing global health problems but it
has also become or worked as a cure for reducing global health problems in a proper and
effective manner. Removal social, technical, cultural and economic barriers have not only
resulted in degrading health of people but has also helped in increase in cure of various kinds of
communicable and non-communicable diseases (Torres-Alzate, 2019). It has helped in
increasing awareness about one’s health, health related problems and ways in which one can
enhance their overall health. Access to easy knowing has helped various kinds of global
organizations like World health organization to generate awareness about adverse effect of
smoking, alcohol, excess weight loss, luxurious life style etc. upon health of individuals. It has
helped in bringing changes within individuals and has further helped them in leaving unhealthy
habits like smoking. For smokers, health belief model can be used as this model says that one’s
own perception, belief and circumstances in which an individual lives determine change within
their behaviour. Health belief model says that people can quit smoking if they understand its
negative impact on health and prefer to avoid cancer, heart disease, and other smoking‐
related illness, then they can quit smoking only if they think or believe that quitting smoking
would help them to avoid these diseases (Mohammadi and et. al., 2017). This chance in
perception and belief is only possible because of globalization as it has helped in increasing or
generating global awareness about adverse effects of smoking on one’s health.
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Another way in which globalization has worked as a cure for global health problems is
advancement in technology and availability of advance technology. It has helped in development
of connection between different nations through information technology. It has enhanced
primary care of patients suffering from life threatening diseases. For diseases like cancer,
cardiovascular diseases, advance treatment can be made available to patients, excellent and high-
quality primary care can be provided to patients (Torres-Alzate, 2019). Any kind of medical
facility can be made available to patients for their treatment from any part of world because of
which recovery rate of health- related diseases has increased and reduced mortality rate of most
of the life- threatening diseases. It has further helped in increasing life expectancy of people
suffering from diseases like dementia, diabetes because of easy access to medical facilities. It can
also be said that there is a strong connection between technology and health. Globalization has
made it possible to enhance healthcare facilities within a nation in order to enhance overall
health of people.
Globalization has further helped in increasing awareness about ways in which one can
enhance their overall health and avoid various kinds of communicable or non-communicable
diseases. There are various kinds of organizations like WHO (World health organization) that
works on global level and focuses upon increasing awareness about different kinds of health
problems and ways in which it can be cured (Torres-Alzate, 2019). WHO issues updated
guidelines for health practitioners, policy makers, in order to promote physical and mental health
of people globally and prevent use of drugs, alcohol, self-harm, and interpersonal violence
among people, and increase awareness among people so that they can prevent themselves from
sexually transmitting diseases and other kinds of communicable diseases. In other words,
globalization has made it possible for organizations like WHO to promote health, keep
the world safe, and serve the vulnerable. WHO (World health organization) focuses upon using
health belief model as this model helps them in generating awareness about health issues and
ways in which those issues can be tackled. As generating awareness, enhancing knowledge and
understanding of people can help in changing their belief, perception that can further help those
individuals in bringing change within their behaviour, they can become aware of their
surroundings, environment, their lifestyle and bring positive changed that can help them to bring
improvement within their overall health.
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Summary
Above critical evaluation clearly explains that Globalization is both cause and the cure of
global health problems. Globalization has impacted overall lives of people globally. Removal of
trading or transportation barrier has increased chances of spreading of communicable diseases
and increased threat for people globally. But it has also made availability of health care facilities
and services available globally to people because of which management fo life threatening
diseases like diabetes much easier. Advancement in technology has also impacted global health
of people in both positive and negative manner. Globalization has removed technological
barriers and made communication or interaction between people from different culture much
easier. But this has influenced people negatively, individuals are getting influenced from other
drastically and adopting negative habits like smoking, drugs, drinking alcohol because of health
of people is getting impacted. However, this globalization and advance technology has helped in
development of vaccines for severe diseases and development of medicines for management of
life- threatening diseases like diabetes, dementia etc. This advance technology has further helped
healthcare organization working on global level to generate awareness among people so that they
can work upon enhancing their overall health bring changes within their unhealthy habits in a
proper manner. Globalization has made is possible for organizations like IGO’s and NGO’s to
work together and enhance overall health of people and bring reduction in global health
problems in a proper manner. Globalization has brought various kinds of changes within lifestyle
of people like today a greater number of people are doing sedentary jobs, have unhealthy diet
because of which overall quality of life of people has been affected negatively. But easy access
to internet, media has further helped in generating awareness among people so that they can
adopt a healthy life style. It has further helped developing or under developed countries to
identify ways in which they can provide high quality, clean water and food to their people so that
chances of diseases like cholera can be reduced. Not only this, it has further helped government
in developing plans so that they can focus upon reducing gap or bright between rich and poor
and overall health of all the people can be improved.
CONCLUSION
From the above essay it has been summarized that globalization directly/ indirectly
impact global health of people. It has been summarized that both globalization and global health
problems has a relationship i.e. because of globalization overall health of people has been
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impacted in both positive and negative manner. It is one of the main causes because of which
health issues or problems for people are increasing continuously like communicable diseases can
spread quickly and can become a global cause. Whereas, it has also been summarized that
globalization also works as a cure to various kinds of global health problems. It has helped in
provision of timely and accurate treatment to patients who are suffering from any kind of
disease. This has become possible only because of easy access to resources available globally.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bradbury-Jones, C. and Clark, M., 2017. Globalisation and global health: issues for
nursing. Nursing Standard. 31(39).
Ergin, E. and Akin, B., 2017. Globalization and its Reflections for Health and
Nursing. International Journal of Caring Sciences. 10(1). p.607.
Forster, T., and et. al., 2019. Globalization and health equity: The impact of structural adjustment
programs on developing countries. Social Science & Medicine, p.112496.
García-Dorado, S.C., and et. al., 2019. Economic globalization, nutrition and health: a review of
quantitative evidence. Globalization and health. 15(1). p.15.
Jani, V.J. and Dholakia, R.H., 2020. Is Globalization Inclusive in Health Outcomes?—
Experience of African Countries. In Issues and Challenges of Inclusive
Development (pp. 185-200). Springer, Singapore.
Jani, V.J., Joshi, N.A. and Mehta, D.J., 2019. Globalization and health: An empirical
investigation. Global Social Policy. 19(3). pp.207-224.
Labonté, R., 2018. Reprising the globalization dimensions osf international health.
Mohammadi, S., and et. al., 2017. Predictors of smoking among the secondary high school boy
students based on the health belief model. International Journal of Preventive
Medicine. 8.
Qiu, J., 2017. One world, one health: combating infectious diseases in the age of
globalization. National Science Review. 4(3). pp.493-499.
Schnall, P.L., Dobson, M. and Landsbergis, P., 2016. Globalization, work, and cardiovascular
disease. International Journal of Health Services. 46(4). pp.656-692.
Tajuddin, F.N., 2019. Globalization of Health: Positive or Negative?(Anthropological
Perspective). European Journal of Social Science Education and Research. 6(1). pp.57-
61.
Torres-Alzate, H., 2019. Nursing Global Health Competencies Framework. Nursing education
perspectives. 40(5). pp.295-299.
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