Health conditions in the Caribbean

Abstract

The epidemiologic situation in the Region of the Americas has undergone major changes in recent decades as the recent decades as the result of a complex set of processes that have altered the age structure of the population, the rate and extent of urbanization, the labor market, education levels, the ecological situation, and the organization of health services. More than any other factor, however, the situation has been influenced by the existence of deep social inequities and the growth of the population living in poverty. This two-volume work describes the changes that have occurred, with emphasis on the period 1989-1992. The first volume presents a regional overview of the health situation in six chapters plus an annex of health and development indicators. The second volume is made up of country reports that summarize the salient processes and problems in each country. The Pan American Health Organization hopes that the information offered in this publication will assist in decision-making and stimulate continued improvement of the generation, processing, and analysis of increasingly relevant and timely data to aid in framing health policies, reorganizing services, preventing and controlling diseases, and giving attention to priority problems