Health and Nutrition in Emerging Asia
Abstract
This paper examines the quality of health and nutrition in emerging Asia. The objective is to assess the likely prospects for the early 21st century and identify the policy responses that may become necessary to meet new challenges or to deal with the persistent ones. The paper begins by assessing past achievements and failures in the areas of health and nutrition in Asia in comparison with the rest of the world, and then analyzes the differentials that exist within Asia—differentials between sexes, between urban and rural location, and between countries. Some simple models are then developed to explain intercountry differences in health outcomes. Among the persistent problems, the paper highlights the excessive incidence of malnutrition in South Asia. Among the emerging problems, special attention is given to the general problem of “overlapping health transition” and the specific problems of smoking-related diseases and a potential AIDS epidemic. The paper concludes by drawing out a number of policy implications.
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The authors are grateful for helpful comments from Lincoln Chen, Jeffrey Sachs, David Bloom, Frank Harrigan, Arjan de Haan, other members of the Asian Development Bank’s Emerging Asia project, especially to Michael Lipton and an anonymous reviewer. Any remaining errors and inadequacies are the authors’ sole responsibility.
