Resource information
The benefits of good health to
individuals and to society are strongly positive and
improving the health of the poor is a key Millennium
Development Goal. A typical health strategy advocated by
some is increased public spending on health targeted to
favor the poor and backed by foreign assistance, as well as
by an international effort to perfect drugs and vaccines to
ameliorate infectious diseases bedeviling the developing
nations. But if the objective is better health outcomes at
the least cost and a reduction in urban health inequity, the
authors' research suggests that the four most potent
policy interventions are: water and sanitation systems;
urban land use and transport planning; effective primary
care and health programs aimed at influencing diets and
lifestyles; and education. The payoff from these four in
terms of health outcomes dwarf the returns from new drugs
and curative hospital-based medicine, although these
certainly have their place in a modern urban health system.
And the authors find that the resource requirements for
successful health care policies are likely to depend on an
acceleration of economic growth rates which increase
household purchasing power and enlarge the pool of resources
available to national and subnational governments to invest
in health-related infrastructure and services. Thus, an
acceleration of growth rates may be necessary to sustain a
viable urban health strategy which is equitable and to
ensure steady gains in health outcomes.
