At a public health seminar attended by about 60 people in Dunedin yesterday, Prof Beaglehole, a University of Otago graduate who has been director of chronic diseases and health promotion at the World Health Organisation, presented a scorecard on global health.
While progress had been made in some areas, particularly neonatal health and infectious disease control, much remained to be done.
The impact global environmental change would have on health had not been fully recognised, although he joked that having experienced Dunedin weather on Thursday, including hail, he was not sure Dunedin would be affected by global warming.
The current world financial crisis, the environmental crisis and the chronic disease crisis could all be aligned, allowing opportunity for " advancing on all fronts", he said.
Health should be promoted as the goal of foreign policy.
Too much focus was placed on global economic growth as the "be-all and end-all" of foreign policy.
Health systems needed to be strengthened with greater emphasis on primary health care.
The Chinese barefoot doctors, a system which had all "gone to hell" leaving the rural service there a disaster, was a community-based model from which lessons could have been learnt.
Greater focus was also needed on the social factors which determined people's health.
In New Zealand, particularly with regard to Maori health, this was recognised.
Tobacco control measures were one way world health could be readily improved, but only about 5% of the world was covered by effective measures.
New Zealand, although it was relatively far advanced, still had a long way to go.
"We don't use all control instruments as effectively as we might," Prof Beaglehole said.
