Module 1: Basic Concepts and Measures

Answer at least 3 questions, including at least 1 question on each paper.

Discussion Rubric

Pol and Thomas (2013). Chapter 1, “Health demography: An evolving discipline,” pp. 1-12.

1). Health demography has clear roots in demography, epidemiology, and social science. Regarding the social science basis for demographic analysis, describe briefly:

a). what are the key concepts and theoretical frameworks that are most relevant to our purpose of the four disciplines mentioned (sociology, anthropology, geography, and economics);

b). which ones can be most relied upon for studying health status, health behavior, healthcare delivery, and for healthcare planning purposes?

Pol and Thomas (2013), Chapter 2, “Health and healthcare: An introduction,” pp. 13-36.

2). The U.S. healthcare system is characterized by a very complex institutional framework, but the way it is organized (particularly its horizontal dimension) can be described by its demographic parameters, particular in terms of its healthcare personnel and users (or patients).

a). outline the key demographic characteristics of health care providers in the US healthcare system (pp. 24-28 especially).

b). describe the main public health functions of the US healthcare system, including those for health research (especially pp. 30-31), and describe 5 key concepts for health demography that are of particular interest to you (pp. 33-35).

Leone, T (2010) “How can demography inform health policy?” Health Economics, Policy and Law, 5(1): 1-11.

3). How can societies adapt to better meet the needs of a population with a changing age structure? Do you anticipate the low fertility rate in many countries will result in different challenges in a few generations?

4). The article states that it is often assumed that population ageing is due to improvements in mortality, but a counterintuitive finding of demographic research is that population ageing is primarily caused by declining fertility, with consequent changes in age structure.

a). What role can demography play in finding solutions to present and future challenges associated with population growth and aging, particularly concerning health?

b). How might these solutions differ around the globe given variation in the components of population dynamics?

I have not set questions on the following 2 short pieces, which are straightforward to read:

Kulczycki, A. (2008) “Demography,” in S.E. Boslaugh (Ed.) (2008) The Encyclopedia of Epidemiology (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage), pp. 258-260.

Bergman, LF (2012) “United States- Challenges of economic and demographic trends,” Social Science & Medicine, 74: 656-657.