Global health and health promotion processes: an integrative literature review

Abstract

Global Health is a polysemic expression, but strongly identified as a response to relatively new Health problems and with accelerated growth in the number of cases, which affect the population of both rich and poor countries, such as the emergence of diseases that can be avoided by through exercise practices or physical or sports activities. These diseases can be: Obesity, Diabetes, Cardiopathies, Kidney dysfunctions, Metabolic syndromes, among others. These diseases can also be avoided through food control, social programs such as the Family Health Program, vaccination campaigns, control of health and humanitarian crises. Another factor that has contributed to the imbalance of Global Health is the unrestricted use of natural resources, the growing and unrestrained exploitation of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, among others. In this sense, this article aims to show in the current literature how the Global Health field is being configured, linked to contemporary globalization processes. Methodologically, the study took place through an integrative view of the literature, with emphasis on scientific productions published from the 2000s onwards. The main results of the article show that Global Health is a field that involves diplomatic relations between countries, role remodeling of agencies considered hegemonic in the 20th century, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), horizontal proximity between countries in the formulation of health policies, participation of actors from civil society and the second sector, recognition of cultural, political and social diversity , and the need to understand the environmental determinants of health. On the other hand, it shows its limits of practical action in contexts marked by neoliberal principles, of minimal state intervention, since investments in Global Health depend on the performance of strong national health systems.