Sustainable Development Goal: Health and well-being

The implementation of the third UN Sustainable Development Goal by 2023 has been slowed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Will we be able to achieve a good level of health and well-being in the world?

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, progress in the area of health was much more evident; reproductive health of mothers and children, coverage of immunizations and treatment of infectious diseases improved, although there were also significant disparities in individual regions of the world. About 84 percent of these “excess deaths” were concentrated in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas (as defined by the WHO), and 68 percent in just 10 countries. Outages in basic health services were reported in 92 percent of the 129 countries surveyed at the end of 2021.

The pandemic, above all, has seriously disrupted the functioning of basic health services, led to an increase in anxiety and depression, and reduced global life expectancy. It has also stalled progress in the fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. It interrupted the 20-year development of universal health insurance systems. As a result, for the first time in a decade, there has been a decrease in the number of vaccinations, and mortality from tuberculosis and malaria has increased. So we can say that despite the initial acceleration of development in the area of health, we are now at the beginning of the road again. Maybe not at the beginning, but we certainly need to repeat or intensify many activities.

Pandemic and the crisis of mental health and well-being

The global mental health crisis is negatively affecting the functioning of work environments. According to the World Health Organization and the International Labor Organization, about 12 billion working days are lost each year due to depression and anxiety disorders, which translates into losses to the global economy of more than $1 trillion a year.

The pandemic has had a major impact on the mental health and well-being of people around the world. In 2020, there was an estimated 25 percent increase in the number of cases of anxiety and depression worldwide, with young people and women at the highest risk. These people were also exposed to the most exacerbated deficit of care, which concerned not only mental health, but also neurology and addiction treatment.

Although there has been some improvement by the end of 2021, many people are still unable to get the help they need — both for pre-existing and new mental disorders.

Even before the pandemic, depression, anxiety and other mental health problems affected far too many children. It is estimated that in 2019, more than 13 percent of adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 were diagnosed with a mental disorder as defined by the WHO. The pandemic has exacerbated mental health problems among children and young people due to lack of social experience, school closures, disruption of daily routines, stress related to insecurity and loss of family income, and uncertainty about the future. Ultimately, according to a WHO study, the long-term decline in mental health since 2000 has been exacerbated by Covid-19, with cases of depression increasing by 25 percent globally between 2020-21, and the trend has not abated.

What is further contributing to the deepening of this global mental health crisis? Factors such as cost of living, lengthening working hours, widespread use of social media, and the interrelated nature of our work and home lives thanks to new technologies.

Regional disparities in improving health

It is difficult to talk about a clear improvement in health in the world when we do not pay attention to individual regions. Unfortunately, we face many economic inequalities that affect health care in a given country or region.

One good example is access to competent and qualified birth care, which is crucial because it reduces the morbidity and mortality of mothers and newborns. Globally, when we look at the percentage results, we could conclude that perinatal care has been provided in most areas of the world and we are going in the right direction. Between 2015 and 2021, an estimated 84 percent of births were assisted by qualified medical personnel, including doctors, nurses and midwives. This was an increase of 77 percent between 2008 and 2014, but if we look at the coverage of such care in sub-Saharan Africa, it was 20 percentage points lower than the global average. So you can see that the disparities are huge.

In recent years, child survival rates have improved, although too many are still dying. In 2020, as many as 5 million children under the age of five died, almost half of them in the first month of life (remember that it was a pandemic period). The most difficult situation is in sub-Saharan Africa, where the child mortality rate is 14 times higher than in Europe and North America. The teenage birth rate has also fallen and the biggest improvement can be seen in South and Central Asia, which is a positive sign.

Global Health Monitoring - Our World in Data

In addition to mental health and the pandemic, attention is also drawn to the development of non-communicable diseases (cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes are the main causes of death in the world), since their treatment and prevention require significant financial costs. These diseases also include those that result from alcohol consumption, smoking, obesity and unhealthy eating, and lack of physical activity. Importantly, 77 percent of deaths from non-communicable diseases occur in low- and middle-income countries.

Food safety and environmental health (by American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine)

Despite progress in ensuring global food security, hunger and malnutrition remain major health challenges, including in developed countries. Natural disasters, climate change and a growing population burden infrastructure and make existing socio-economic inequalities visible. Our food systems are primarily based on a few species of plants and animals that are susceptible to disease, invasive pests, and the effects of biodiversity loss. In addition, climate change is increasingly affecting the quality and availability of food.

Equally important is the impact of the environment on human health. Many infectious diseases — such as COVID-19, Ebola and HIV — have their origin in close contact between humans and wild animals, often as a result of encroachment on natural habitats. The protection of wildlife can therefore also serve as a health prevention function. Air and water pollution is another serious threat, leading to millions of premature deaths each year and chronic diseases. In addition, rising global temperatures are encouraging the spread of tropical diseases to areas that have previously been free of them, posing new challenges to healthcare systems around the world.

Inequalities in access to health care

They arise not only from biological differences, but also from the living conditions in which people are born, raised and function. Their deepening is also influenced by political, legal, economic, as well as social norms and actions of institutions. While some countries have well-developed and widely accessible health systems, access to treatment remains limited in many poorer regions of the world. Millions of people struggle with barriers — both financial and organizational — leading to a huge number of preventable deaths each year. It is worth asking ourselves how much, as countries, we spend money from GDP on state health care.

In 2023, Poland allocated about PLN 241.6 billion to health care, which represented 7.1% of gross domestic product (GUSU data). By comparison, in 2023, the average expenditure of European Union governments on health protection amounted to 7.3% of gross domestic product (GDP), equivalent to 1,251 billion euros.

summary

The COVID-19 pandemic has stalled progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal on health, deepening the global mental health crisis and exposing inequalities in access to care — a difficult period and resulting in many changes and reversals. These problems are further exacerbated today by climate change, food crises and non-communicable diseases, which are increasingly burdening health systems, especially in lower-income countries. Faced with these challenges, there is a need to redouble global health efforts and to invest more in accessible and equitable care systems. Certainly, environmental protection as well as equitable distribution of goods and access to health care contribute to the improvement.

Sources

Sustainable Development Goal: Health and well-being

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