fh.1.3 Global patterns in health indicators
Content
- Geographic inquiry and concept(s)
- Ways of measuring disparities in food and health between places
- Geographic knowledge and understanding
- Global patterns in health indicators, including health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE), infant mortality, maternal mortality, access to sanitation and the ratio between doctors/physicians and people
- Case study or detailed examples
- Neither required by the syllabus
- Aims of this lesson
- To have knowledge and understanding of the global patterns of HALE.
- To have knowledge and understanding of the global patterns of infant mortality.
- To have knowledge and understanding of the global patterns of maternal mortality.
- To have knowledge and understanding of the global patterns of access to sanitation.
- To have knowledge and understanding of the global patterns of people per doctor/physician.
Base knowledge and understanding
News article
Australia’s life expectancy gap narrows but men in disadvantaged areas dying almost seven years earlier
Major causes of death contributing to inequality are lung cancer, respiratory illness and heart disease, ANU researchers say
The Guardian · 1 July 2025
Key terms
- Access to sanitation
- The percentage of the population which has access and are using improved sanitation facilities.
- Healthy life expectancy (HALE) at birth
- Average number of years that a person can expect to live in "full health" by taking into account years lived in less than full health due to disease and/or injury.
- Infant mortality rate
- The number of infants dying before reaching one year of age, per 1,000 live births in a given year.
- Life expectancy at birth
- Indicates the number of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of its birth were to stay the same throughout its life.
- Maternal mortality ratio
- The number of women who die from pregnancy-related causes while pregnant or within 42 days of pregnancy termination per 100,000 live births.
- Ratio between doctors/physicians and people
- Medical doctors per 10000
Log in or subscribe to continueUnlock the full lesson — the teaching content, lesson resources, and the complete Notion version.
Review
- Outline one way in which health-adjusted life expectancy differs from standard life expectancy. [2]
- Explain two reasons why the ratio of doctors to patients varies between countries. [4]
- Examine how the epidemiological transition and changing population structures affect the global disease burden. [10]
- Examine why global patterns of health indicators such as HALE and infant mortality vary between countries at different levels of economic development. [10]