Globalization and health Inequalities - Essay Example

Lee (2000) explain that globalisation is an unavoidable and primarily gentle process of global economic integration, in which countries increasingly drop border restrictions on the flow of capital, goods and services. He further acknowledged that risks are a more rapid spread of disease through tourism and the speedier and more massive and regular movement of goods and people. He noted that the risks of globalisation processes can be managed and are more than offset by benefits in the dissemination of new ideas, technologies and steady global economic growth (Lee 2000).

Whereas, Dowler (2007) define inequalities in health to mean difference in health experience between different groups of people, in that some groups of people experience poorer health than the majority of the population. This he said, is usually due to life circumstances, such as living in poverty, on low or fixed incomes, in poor housing, having few opportunities for social activities, a lack of connectedness to community; and, to discrimination arising from gender, poverty, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation or disability (Dowler, 2007).

This paper will present a literature review on globalisation and its effects on health inequalities. The main objective is to provide a framework to understand how globalisation accelerates current changes in our lifestyles, the free movement of people travelling (Tourism) in relation to the rapid spread of infectious diseases, noticeably SARS. Inaddition, the estimate shows increasing gaps between the rich and poor that emerged in the various literatures. Research shows that the globalisation process as it is defined by Lee (2000) and others, that globalisation are responsible for the accelerated free movement of people.

WHO (2003) estimated that more than two million travellers cross international borders on a daily basis. This includes not only economic migrants, refugees but also tourism. It is suggested that, a traveller infected with SARS could easily be transported across the globe six times within the incubation period of this deadly disease (WHO, 2003). This research will analyse this statement in detail and provide points for future research needs, based on the current globalisation policy debates and around the spread of diseases, and it will also make a case study of SARS in order to enrich the proposal.

RESEARCH QUESTION: Does globalisation contribute to health inequality'AIM: To analyze and discuss, where, why and how the globalisation process affects or accelerates health inequalityOBJECTIVES:1. To see what has and has not been investigated about globalisation and how does it affect health inequality 2. To identify potential relationships between the concepts and to identify researchable needs in the area3. To develop an understanding of how free movement of people such as tourism has changed cultures/lifestyles, through the process of globalisation 4.

To demonstrate knowledge of the history of the spread of infectious diseases and globalisation of trade and investments5. To discover how my research project can be related to the work of others LITERATURE REVIEWI will conduct my research, from the