Terrorism, civil war, one-sided violence and global burden of disease

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine relationships between terrorism, civil war This dissertation research highlighted the need to expand the traditional focus of intervention for communicable diseases among conflict-affected populations to include a variety of noncommunicable diseases (Paper 1). Results underscore the need for international government and nongovernment organizations to prioritize high risk areas for diarrheal and related disease control to include conflict-affected populations with particular attention to young children who are most vulnerable to these diseases (Paper 2). That terrorism and related violence influence diarrheal and related diseases in the longer-term suggests that control strategies should move beyond short-term provisions for safe water and adequate sanitation to seek solutions through health systems infrastructure development. Greater attention should also be given to the prevention and treatment of substance use disorders in conflict-affected populations including brief interventions targeted at high risk substance users, provisions for needles and syringes and management of withdrawal and other acute substance-related conditions (Paper 3).Strengthening substance abuse treatment systems among conflict-affected populations will be critical in identifying and treating of a variety of physical and psychiatric disorders that are often comorbid with substance use disorders. Taken together, this research has served to highlight the full health costs of terrorism, civil war and one-sided violence will ultimately contribute to forging a stronger rationale for promoting peace.

Effects of terrorist attacks on access to maternal healthcare services: a national longitudinal study in Burkina Faso

“…Like armed conflicts, these attacks can damage public health infrastructure and services; undermine water, electricity and food supply; increase poverty; impede vaccination campaigns; and deteriorate sanitation and transportation. [5][6][7][8][9][10] In addition, terrorist attacks aim to generate a feeling of insecurity in the general population, whose negative impact on numerous health indicators has been demonstrated in the context of armed conflicts. 11 12 For example, studies reveal that the availability and access to maternal healthcare services, including family planning and contraception, are likely reduced under highintensity conflict conditions, possibly contributing to increased maternal mortality.…”

The social network of international health aid

“…We use the Polity2 variable from Polity IV dataset, which measures democratic and authoritarian features of regimes on the basis of measures that capture modes of executive recruitment, constraints on executive authority, and political competition. A fifth control variable captures political violence in a country, either internal or international, since violence could contribute to mortality either directly or indirectly by weakening public health systems (Kerridge et al, 2012). We do not include certain control variables, notably domestic health spending per capita, physicians per capita and years of schooling of women of reproductive age, because numerous missing values would reduce the number of observations drastically.…”

On the human consequences of terrorism

“…In a meta-study of that phenomenon, Salguero et al (2001) find that the risk of MDD in nonvictims after a terrorist attack lies between 4 and 10% for the adult population where the event occurred. Lastly, Kerridge et al (2012) find evidence that terrorism can have negative effects on public health beyond sequela experienced by the immediate victims and that effect is not accounted for. 4 It follows that, given the number of lives lost, LL, the number of disability adjusted lives directly lost in a terrorist event is:…”