Gosh, was this book for me? Well no, not really and it took me a while to read it. I'm a fairly good example of the 'but why' personality type and list some of my favourite authors as Jared Diamond, Stephen Pinker, Claudia Orange, Michael King etc. but this was harder going and gave me more information that I needed.
Firstly I don't think I'm as interested in public health as I thought I was and there is a lot of information to digest here. The cover makes the book look more accessible than it is, but a quick flick though and you'll see it's full of graphs and tables; so, not light reading. It probably requires an academic review rather than someone who is a general interest reader.
Now that I've got rid of my objections what did I find helpful?
I thought it gave a New Zealand context to some of some of my other reading;
Gosh, was this book for me? Well no, not really and it took me a while to read it. I'm a fairly good example of the 'but why' personality type and list some of my favourite authors as Jared Diamond, Stephen Pinker, Claudia Orange, Michael King etc. but this was harder going and gave me more information that I needed.
Firstly I don't think I'm as interested in public health as I thought I was and there is a lot of information to digest here. The cover makes the book look more accessible than it is, but a quick flick though and you'll see it's full of graphs and tables; so, not light reading. It probably requires an academic review rather than someone who is a general interest reader.
Now that I've got rid of my objections what did I find helpful?
I thought it gave a New Zealand context to some of some of my other reading;
It clarified some of my thinking about health discrepancies between Maori and later settlers;
I found out how and why Maori and Those of European origin rose and fell differently on the life expectancy scale;
The tobacco industry has had a far greater impact on public health then I really appreciated
I have a new perspective on obesity;
It gives a great overview of ageing in New Zealand and the issues of inter-generational equity, fungibility (a new word for me - something of equal value being able to be exchanged i.e. trade-offs) and the factors implicated in longevity. These issues are timely and to my mind need much more debate. (The argument however that public health is evidenced to be improving to the extent that there are fewer older people now in residential care is inaccurate. The fact is that the entry criteria have been tightened.);
A pathway towards the compression of morbidity and increased life expectancy is clearly laid out and is a useful place to help begin the above debate.
There is much, much more in this book than the topics I've raised and this brings me back to the beginning. I don't really feel very qualified to comment about to whom 'The Healthy Country? A History of Life and Death in New Zealand' might appeal. Perhaps it's those who are fascinated by the history of public health, value the research that has been undertaken to produce this work and appreciate having it all here together in one place.
To enter the draw for a copy of this book CLICK HERE Draw closes 6th December 2014. Open to NZ residents only.
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