Globalization and Health
Journal Data
| Type | JOURNAL |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Springer Nature (SG) |
| ISSN | 1744-8603 |
| Scopus | 4400151514 |
| Wikidata | Q5570929 |
| OpenAlex | S112714904 |
| MAG | 112714904 |
| Website | http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/ |
| Total publications | 1.429 |
| Coverage period | 2005 - 2026 |
| Country | GB |
| Language | EN |
| Access | Open Access |
| Indexing | DOAJ indexed • Scopus indexed |
| Cited by | 34 |
| Impact factor | 1.493 |
| SJR | 1.692 (Q1) |
| SNIP | 1.748 |
| CiteScore | 9.8 |
| h-index | 2 |
| i10-index | 1 |
| Overton policy citations | 2 |
| Female authorship share | 54.5% |
This journal focuses on globalization and health, which is a core area of inquiry for medical anthropology. It publishes work directly relevant to understanding health disparities, global health interventions, and the social determinants of health from a critical, often ethnographic, perspective
Health Policy · Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health · Child Nutrition and Water Access · Climate Change and Health Impacts · Consumer Attitudes and Food Labeling · COVID-19 and Mental Health · COVID-19 epidemiological studies · COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts · Employment and Welfare Studies
Nursing as a systems profession in One Health
The Joint Plan sets out high-level objectives across six action tracks, while the 2023 national implementation guide supports countries in adopting and adapting those objectives to their own contexts. This paper examines nursing as a systems profession within One Health, using the six action tracks as an analytic framework. Across the tracks, we distinguish established nursing functions from opportunities for those functions to be more explicitly…
Quantitative assessment of national essential medicines lists processes
The National Essential Medicines List (NEML) selection process is a foundational component of an essential medicines based policy, and the NEML itself is a key policy tool. The World Health Organization (WHO) provides guidance for policy development that aligns with the Accountability for Reasonableness (AFR) framework, along with a model Essential Medicines List (EML) to support NEML selection process development. An effective selection process …
Bridging concessional-loan and grant-linked aid for global health
Commercial interests in health policy dialogues
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are rising rapidly in South Africa, prompting the introduction of the Health Promotion Levy (HPL) in 2018 to reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. However, the levy remains below the rate recommended by the World Health Organization. One of the central institutions involved in the policy process leading up to and following the introduction of the HPL was the National Economic Development and Labour …
Artificial intelligence for climate–health early warning systems in the Horn of Africa
Climate extremes, conflict, and population displacement converge in the Horn of Africa to accelerate outbreaks of climate-sensitive infectious diseases, whereas existing health surveillance systems remain fragmented and largely reactive. This Perspective examines the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to strengthen climate–health early warning by integrating satellite earth observations, routine disease surveillance, and mobility-based vul…
Organising cross-border care after arrival
Cross-border healthcare is increasingly visible in border regions where patient mobility develops faster than the institutional arrangements needed to support care. Existing research has often examined why patients seek care abroad, while less is known about how receiving health systems organise care after cross-border patients enter local hospitals. This study examined the receiving-system challenges faced by Guangxi, China, in responding to cro…
From rupture to recourse
Institutional quality and pandemic resilience
BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic exposed large cross-country differences in mortality, vaccination rollout, and economic recovery. We examine whether stronger pre-pandemic institutions were associated with better pandemic performance and whether vaccination rollout helps explain part of that relationship. We combine 2019 World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators with COVID-19 outcomes, policy measures, World Development Indicators, and V-Dem el…
Political prioritization of alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverage taxation in Uganda
INTRODUCTION: Uganda faces a rising burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) at a time when pressure to mobilize domestic health financing is increasing. These challenges have become more acute since January 2025, when geopolitical shifts and donor fiscal tightening led to substantial reductions in external health funding. Consequently, policymakers have renewed interest in health taxes as a mechanism both to reduce consumption of harmful produc…
Mental health knowledge production on Palestinians
Research on Palestinian mental health has expanded substantially over recent decades. However, limited attention has been paid to how this body of knowledge has been historically produced. Knowledge production is not neutral but rather shaped by broader global political dynamics that influence how research is framed, prioritized, funded, and legitimized. In contexts shaped by intractable conflict and structural inequality, examining knowledge pro…
Addressing the commercial determinants of unhealthy beverage exposure
BACKGROUND: The beverage industry plays an influential role in the US. Certain beverages, such as sugar-sweetened, have long been recognized as key contributors to poor population health with inequitable impacts. In response, multiple US initiatives have attempted to address these problems through public awareness campaigns and policies, such as taxes. Yet, the persistent and increasing reliance on unhealthy commercial products produced by the be…
Trade, power, and public health
BACKGROUND: The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) has generated intense debate in Thailand, concerning its implications for public health, particularly intellectual property, and access to medicines. During 2018-2022, Thailand undertook an extended in-country process to provide evidence on its economic opportunity and public health challenges for the Cabinet decision. However, there is no evidence indic…
Global norms, local institutions
Security governance and health inequity in contemporary crises
Contemporary crises increasingly draw health systems, humanitarian access, medical supply chains, and civilian protection into security-oriented governance. While the health consequences of war and economic coercion, and geopolitical rivalry are widely documented, less attention has been paid to the discursive processes through which such consequences are rendered legitimate, unavoidable, or politically peripheral. This paper addresses this gap b…
Strategic solidarity
BACKGROUND: During the Covid-19 pandemic, Nordic states were praised for leadership on global vaccine equity, notably through strong support for the Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) and COVAX. At the same time, like other high‐income countries, they took decisive measures to secure priority access to vaccines for their own populations, contributing to global inequities. Scholarship on global health security and diplomacy often treats …
Building a case for accelerated clinical development of drugs and vaccines – what are the driving forces
BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic, among others, has shown the world that rapid drug and vaccine development and expedited clinical trials can be effective and safe. The overall benefit of accelerating clinical development would be faster public access to medicines. In this study, we explore key stakeholders' experiences and perceptions of drivers for the acceleration of clinical development. METHODS: We conducted semi-structured interviews with …
WHO’s 2026 emergency appeal and global health security
The World Health Organization’s 2026 global appeal seeks nearly US$1 billion to sustain life-saving health interventions amid escalating humanitarian crises. This Letter highlights persistent funding shortfalls affecting fragile and conflict-affected states, including Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen, where service suspensions and outbreaks have compounded morbidity and mortality. Despite WHO and partners reaching millions in 2025, financing remains ins…
Why health diplomacy should be understood as a deterrence instrument
Sweden’s health system is increasingly exposed to strategic vulnerabilities arising from globalised pharmaceutical supply chains, medicine shortages, antimicrobial resistance, and hybrid geopolitical threats. In a period of heightened international tension, safeguarding health security has become an urgent policy concern. While the securitisation of health diplomacy raises ethical and political challenges, this article argues that health diplomac…
An account of health systems resilience to emergencies in Africa
Healthcare systems across Africa continue to face a wide range of shocks. Using Ebola and COVID-19 as case studies, this study examines the various resilience strategies implemented in different countries and synthesises them in a way that can serve as a practical guide to make health systems in Africa more resilient for future emergencies. The study is a scoping review that synthesises evidence from peer-reviewed journal articles and grey litera…
Decision-making about bariatric and cosmetic medical tourism from countries with universal healthcare
Background A growing number of people are travelling abroad for medical treatments (known as medical tourism; MT), driven by globalisation of the healthcare market. Medical tourists from countries with universal healthcare strain resources when returning with complications which require aftercare or further treatment. This rapid systematic review synthesised literature on decision-making of medical tourists, focusing on cosmetic and bariatric MT …
Canadian mines, global issues
While a global player in the mining and metals sector, there is little regulatory oversight by Canada of Canadian mining companies in relation to their transnational activities. Much mineral exploration and mining take place in remote and rural areas inhabited by Indigenous and other minoritized and/or marginalized communities, and has been linked to worsening health, social, and environmental conditions. Few effective legal mechanisms exist to m…
The end of the garden path? Analyzing smallholder tobacco farming income and decision-making in Mozambique
Many government sectors view tobacco growing to hold significant economic value for smallholder farmers, a narrative driving policy and practice. Corresponding to this narrative, there has been a marked increase in land allocated to leaf production and cigarette manufacturing. We tested this narrative in Mozambique by quantifying the economic net income of smallholder tobacco growers (n = 1 315 households) in four major tobacco growing districts …
Capitalising (on) industrial epidemics
In recent decades, the Big Three asset managers (BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street) have emerged to be among the top shareholders in thousands of listed companies worldwide. Accordingly, they have considerable influence on corporate decision-making. This paper aimed to examine the influence of the Big Three on the governance of leading corporations in key health-harming commodity industries responsible for a large burden of preventable death and …
Addressing global health equity through Global Collaborative Evidence Networks
BACKGROUND: Global Health Equity is increasingly threatened by interconnected global crises that expose systemic inequities in health systems, global health governance and evidence infrastructures. Global Collaborative Evidence Networks have emerged as mechanisms for mobilising knowledge, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, and supporting decision-making across diverse contexts to address Global Health Equity. However, their potential is c…
Insecure employment and the social determinants of suicide
Employment-related suicide is a global public health problem, which is becoming more urgent as the world’s workforce is increasingly employed under insecure conditions. Workers who lack secure employment—including those who are unemployed and in various forms of precarious employment—experience poorer health. Suicide is hidden in the literature on worker health, often subsumed by the focus on mental illness. This article presents a review of rese…
Masculinity as a barrier to men's use of HIV services in Zimbabwe
A growing number of studies highlight men's disinclination to make use of HIV services. This suggests there are factors that prevent men from engaging with health services and an urgent need to unpack the forms of sociality that determine men's acceptance or rejection of HIV services.Drawing on the perspectives of 53 antiretroviral drug users and 25 healthcare providers, we examine qualitatively how local constructions of masculinity in rural Zim…
The impact of neoliberal generative mechanisms on Indigenous health
The pervasive nature and colonial foundations of neoliberalism has significant ramifications for Indigenous health, globally. Not only does neoliberalism undermine Indigenous collectivist values by emphasising personal autonomy, but the exploitation of natural resources has unique implications for Indigenous wellbeing. Therefore, this scoping review aims to synthesise evidence that articulates the impacts of neoliberalism on global Indigenous hea…
Trade related infections
Modern global trading traffics large volumes of diverse products rapidly to a broad geographic area of the world. When emergent infections enter this system in traded products their transmission is amplified. With truly novel emergent infections with long incubation periods, such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) or variant Creutzfeld Jacob Disease (vCJD), this transmission may silently disseminate infection to far distant populations prior t…
International nurse recruitment and NHS vacancies
BACKGROUND: Foreign-trained nurse recruits exceeded the number of new British-trained recruits on the UK nurse register for the first time in 2001. As the nursing shortage continues, health care service providers rely increasingly on overseas nurses to fill the void. Which areas benefit the most? And where would the NHS be without them? METHODS: Using cross-sectional data from the 2004 Nursing and Midwifery Council register, nurse resident postco…
Global health priorities – priorities of the wealthy
Health has gained importance on the global agenda. It has become recognized in forums where it was once not addressed. In this article three issues are considered: global health policy actors, global health priorities and the means of addressing the identified health priorities. I argue that the arenas for global health policy-making have shifted from the public spheres towards arenas that include the transnational for-profit sector. Global healt…
Medicines and vaccines for the world's poorest
This paper reviews the current status of the global pharmaceutical industry and its research and development focus in the context of the health care needs of the developing world. It will consider the attempts to improve access to critical drugs and vaccines, and increase the research effort directed at key public health priorities in the developing world. In particular, it will consider prospects for public-private collaboration. The challenges …
Globalization and Health
The tremendous benefits which have been conferred to almost 5 billion people through improved technologies and knowledge highlights the concomitant challenge of bringing these changes to the 1 billion people living mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia who are yet to benefit. There is a growing awareness of the need to reduce human suffering and of the necessary participation of governments, non-government organizations and industry within …
Exploring ethical considerations for the use of biological and physiological markers in population-based surveys in less developed countries
BACKGROUND: The health information needs of developing countries increasingly include population-based estimates determined by biological and physiological measures. Collection of data on these biomarkers requires careful reassessment of ethical standards and procedures related to issues of safety, informed consent, reporting, and referral policies. This paper reviews the survey practices of health examination surveys that have been conducted in …
To quell obesity, who should regulate food marketing to children
The global hegemony of the United States in the production and marketing of food, while a marvel of economic success, has contributed to the epidemic of obesity that is particularly afflicting children. So far the U.S. government has declined to regulate the aggressive ways in which food producers market high-energy, low-nutrition foods to young people. That public-health responsibility has been left to an industry-created scheme of self-regulati…
Policy lessons from comparing mortality from two global forces
BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to compare the mortality burdens from two global impacts on mortality: international terrorism and the major cause of preventable death in developed countries--tobacco use. We also sought to examine the similarities and differences between these two causes of mortality so as to better inform the policy responses directed at prevention. METHODS: Data on deaths from international terrorism were obtained from a …
Can context justify an ethical double standard for clinical research in developing countries
BACKGROUND: The design of clinical research deserves special caution so as to safeguard the rights of participating individuals. While the international community has agreed on ethical standards for the design of research, these frameworks still remain open to interpretation, revision and debate. Recently a breach in the consensus of how to apply these ethical standards to research in developing countries has occurred, notably beginning with the …
TRIPS, the Doha Declaration and increasing access to medicines
There are acute disparities in pharmaceutical access between developing and industrialized countries. Developing countries make up approximately 80% of the world's population but only represent approximately 20% of global pharmaceutical consumption. Among the many barriers to drug access are the potential consequences of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. Many developing countries have recently modified t…
Assessing the impact of the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement on Australian and global medicines policy
On 1 January 2005, a controversial trade agreement entered into force between Australia and the United States. Though heralded by the parties as facilitating the removal of barriers to free trade (in ways not achievable in multilateral fora), it also contained many trade-restricting intellectual property provisions and others uniquely related to altering pharmaceutical regulation and public health policy in Australia. The latter appear to have pa…
The global diet
Practices designed to meet the demands of global trade can amplify food safety problems. Ever-increasing pressure to churn out more product and better sides of beef has generated processes that compromise existing safety measures. Among the concerns are intensified food production, use of antimicrobials and hormones as growth promoters, and poor sanitary infrastructure in some food producing countries. Accompanying the innovations designed to ser…
The World Summit on Sustainable Development
The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) was held in Johannesburg in 2002 to review progress since the Rio conference in 1992, and to agree a new global deal on sustainable development. Unlike its predecessor, it was primarily concerned with implementation rather than with new treaties and targets, although a number of new targets were agreed, for example one on sanitation. Failure to agree a target on renewable energy was regarded as a…
The health impacts of globalisation
This paper describes a conceptual framework for the health implications of globalisation. The framework is developed by first identifying the main determinants of population health and the main features of the globalisation process. The resulting conceptual model explicitly visualises that globalisation affects the institutional, economic, social-cultural and ecological determinants of population health, and that the globalisation process mainly …
Globalization and local response to epidemiological overlap in 21st century Ecuador
BACKGROUND: Third World countries are confronted by a complex overlay of two sets of health problems. Traditional maladies, including communicable diseases, malnutrition, and environmental health hazards coexist with emerging health challenges, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and increasing levels of obesity. Using Ecuador as an example, this paper proposes a conceptual framework for linking epidemiologic overlap to emerging social stru…
Globalization, migration health, and educational preparation for transnational medical encounters
Unprecedented migration, a core dimension of contemporary globalization, challenges population health. In a world of increasing human mobility, many health outcomes are shaped by transnational interactions among care providers and care recipients who meet in settings where nationality/ethnic match is not an option. This review article explores the value of transnational competence (TC) education as preparation for ethnically and socially discorda…
Toward a treaty on safety and cost-effectiveness of pharmaceuticals and medical devices
Expert evaluations of the safety, efficacy and cost-effectiveness of pharmaceutical and medical devices, prior to marketing approval or reimbursement listing, collectively represent a globally important public good. The scientific processes involved play a major role in protecting the public from product risks such as unintended or adverse events, sub-standard production and unnecessary burdens on individual and governmental healthcare budgets. •…
The developing world in The New England Journal of Medicine
BACKGROUND: Rampant disease in poor countries impedes development and contributes to growing North-South disparities; however, leading international medical journals underreport on health research priorities for developing countries. METHODS: We examined 416 weekly issues of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) over an eight-year period, January 1997 to December 2004. A total of 8857 articles were reviewed by both authors. The content of ea…
Antibiotic resistance as a global threat
BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial resistance is an under-appreciated threat to public health in nations around the globe. With globalization booming, it is important to understand international patterns of resistance. If countries already experience similar patterns of resistance, it may be too late to worry about international spread. If large countries or groups of countries that are likely to leap ahead in their integration with the rest of the world-…
Uneven dietary development
In a "nutrition transition", the consumption of foods high in fats and sweeteners is increasing throughout the developing world. The transition, implicated in the rapid rise of obesity and diet-related chronic diseases worldwide, is rooted in the processes of globalization. Globalization affects the nature of agri-food systems, thereby altering the quantity, type, cost and desirability of foods available for consumption. Understanding the links b…
HIV/Aids mitigation strategies and the State in sub-Saharan Africa – the missing link
BACKGROUND: The HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa is widely recognised as a development disaster threatening poverty reduction, economic growth and not merely a health issue. Its mitigation includes the societal-wide adoption and implementation of specific health technologies, many of which depend on functional institutions and State. DISCUSSION: Donor and International Institutions' strategies to mitigate HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa are…
Globalization and social determinants of health
Globalization is a key context for the study of social determinants of health (SDH). Broadly stated, SDH are the conditions in which people live and work, and that affect their opportunities to lead healthy lives.In this first article of a three-part series, we describe the origins of the series in work conducted for the Globalization Knowledge Network of the World Health Organization's Commission on Social Determinants of Health and in the Commi…
Non-communicable diseases and global health governance
This paper assesses progress in the development of a global framework for responding to non-communicable diseases, as reflected in the policies and initiatives of the World Health Organization (WHO), World Bank and the UN: the institutions most capable of shaping a coherent global policy. Responding to the global burden of chronic disease requires a strategic assessment of the global processes that are likely to be most effective in generating co…
Globalization and social determinants of health
This article is the third in a three-part review of research on globalization and the social determinants of health (SDH). In the first article of the series, we identified and defended an economically oriented definition of globalization and addressed a number of important conceptual and metholodogical issues. In the second article, we identified and described seven key clusters of pathways relevant to globalization's influence on SDH. This disc…
Transformational leadership, transnational culture and political competence in globalizing health care services
BACKGROUND: Following the demise of Jordan's King Hussein bin Talal to cancer in 1999, the country's Al-Amal Center was transformed from a poorly perceived and ineffectual cancer care institution into a Western-style comprehensive cancer center. Renamed King Hussein Cancer Center (KHCC), it achieved improved levels of quality, expanded cancer care services and achieved Joint Commission International accreditation under new leadership over a three…