Vol. 13, n. 3, novembre 2020 — pp. 108-110
RECENSIONI
Mpofu, E. (Ed.). (2020).
Sustainable Community Health: Systems and Practices in Diverse Settings.
London-New York: Palgrave McMillan,
pp. 600, eBook 96,29 €; Hardcover 124,79 €
The book edited by Elias Mpofu (PhD, professor of Health services research at the University of North Texas, honorary professor of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney, Australia, and distinguished visiting professor at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa) deals with the theme of sustainable and effective health care systems. In the current Covid-19 pandemic period, this subject appears as essential and noteworthy, suggesting possible opportunities to long-term recovery and sustainability. The present volume offers a comprehensive review on different programs to promote health and reducing inequalities worldwide. Integrating health and behavioral theory and presenting practice-based experiences, this book is reach of valuable and concrete stimuli for enhancing the health of communities with the priority of sustainability.
With regards to its articulation the volume includes five sections and eighteen chapters. The five sections are the following: 1) Foundations of Sustainable Community Health; 2) Policies and Practices in Sustainable Community Health; 3) Indicators and Outcomes of Sustainable Community Health; 4) Sustainable Community Health in Populations; 5) Epilogue.
The first section Foundations of Sustainable Community Health comprises four chapters. The first contribution by Elias Mpofu delineates in a insightful way, the concepts and models in Sustainable Community Health, offering a conceptual framework for the volume, and highlighting the critical role of the natural environment to the economic and social sustainability of community health systems.
The following chapter by Errol D. Crook, Carrie E. Crook, Martha I. Arrieta and Roma Stovall Hanks is focused on health disparities and their impact on community health, presenting the concepts of health disparities and health equity. The chapter discusses the major factors that contribute health disparities to be addressed by sustainable community health practices with a specific centering on community-engaged scholarship for health systems sustainability.
The third chapter by Laura M. Keyes and Abraham David Benavides deals with the subject of the creation of livable communities, presenting conceptual frameworks and current research evidence on this theme and underlining the necessity for further studies to lead livability policies for sustainable livable communities.
The last chapter of this section by Harvey Brenner offers an overview defining the principal objectives in applying econometric techniques to the economics of community health, taking into account cultural and political influences on health policies to enhance community population health outcomes and decreasing health inequities.
The second section Policies and Practices in Sustainable Community Health includes four chapters.
The fifth chapter of this book by Kathleen Davis and Clare Brock regards nutrition practices to grow healthy communities, describing fundamental approaches and interventions, discussing social and political influences, proposing areas that require continued research to improve communities’ nutritional health.
The following chapter by Justin R. Watts, Bradley McDaniels, Solymar Rivera-Torres, Danielle Resiak, Elias Mpofu and Sonia Redwine deals with community substance use safety, defining the community qualities and practices relative to safer substance use for sustainable community health and considering the possible role of culture, health policies, and legislation.
The seventh chapter by Justin R. Watts, Elias Mpofu, Qiwei Li, Veronica Cortez and Ganesh Baniya concerns community mental health resourcing, considering this theme from an ecological and interdisciplinary perspective, analyzing issues linked to professional and legal aspects with a focus on wellness perspectives.
The last chapter of this second section by Chisom Nmesoma Iwundu, Diana Kuo Stojda, Kirsteen Edereka Great and Heath Harllee is about community epidemiological approaches, aligning community epidemiology with the concept of sustainable community health which is based on the ability of communities to plan and realize health policies that will last for long periods.
The third section Indicators and Outcomes of Sustainable Community Health is composed of four chapters. The ninth chapter of this book by David Palm, Valerie Pacino and Li-Wu Chen analyses the associations between quality care improvement (QCI) and sustainable community health, discussing research and practice issues and introducing future perspectives with respect to new theories and trends, and expanded quality measures. The following chapter by Gayle Prybutok is on community health informatics systems and practices for sustainable community health, discussing research and practice issues in the framework of sustainability. The eleventh chapter by Charles P. Bernacchio, Josephine F. Wilson and Jeewani Anupama Ginige is relation to Telehealth utilization in low resource settings in response to health access barriers, underling critical aspects and future possibility. The last chapter of this section by Lu Liang presents metrics and tools relevant to community health, from the perspective of communicable and non-communicable diseases, discussing priority interdisciplinary research and practice needs.
The fourth section Sustainable Community Health in Populations is composed of five chapters.
The first chapter of this section (the thirteenth of the present volume) by Maidei Machina, Elias Mpofu, Solymar Rivera-Torres, Rebekah Knight, Theresa Abah regards the population of older adults and their wellbeing, with a particular focus on sustainable health systems across life domains, protecting their rights to successful aging. This chapter also presents a futuristic perspective on research and intervention with this specific population. The following chapter by Elias Mpofu, Elizabeth Houck, April Linden and Crystal Fernandez is focused on Sustainable health for people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD), discussing the current and future wellness-oriented approaches to the sustainable health of this specific population.
The fifteenth chapter by Andrew M. Colombo-Dougovito, Suzanna Rocco Dillon and Elias Mpofu deals with wellbeing of people with neurodiverse conditions such as those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, and dyslexia, defining neurodiversity in human populations and the associated community health-related implications. The following chapter by Kathleen Davis, Elias Mpofu, Theresa Abah and Ami Moore is centered on the theme of obesity and metabolic conditions, proposing community-level strategies that enhance physical activity, healthy food environments, and robust community health systems to decrease the prevalence of obesity in a given population. The seventeenth chapter is on indigenous community health, considering research and intervention issues for sustainable community health in the current scenario characterized by globalization and digitalization.
The last section Epilogue, which is the final chapter of this book volume proposes unique health-in-all and for all approaches to policies and practices for sustainability community health, pointing out the value of environmental sustainability for economic and social sustainability of community health systems, with the objective to reduce health inequalities and to promote equity and social justice.
Offering theoretical references and concrete possibilities of intervention relative to sustainable community health, the volume constitutes a fundamental and invaluable contribution for anyone working to promote community health at the population level. It is an invaluable resource on community and population level interventions, particularly with community spread diseases such as Covid-19, a pandemic which calls for community level health interventions. This book volume advances the science of community health promotion research and intervention for sustainability.
Annamaria Di Fabio1
1 Università degli Studi di Firenze.
