The Global Polycrisis and Health Inequalities

Area of Science:

• Global Health
• Political Economy
• Health Equity

Background:

• The current era is defined by multiple, overlapping global crises.
• Interconnected global systems are experiencing concurrent and synergistic crises.
• The political economy of health requires examination within global interconnectedness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To apply the polycrisis concept to understand its impact on global health and inequalities.
• To fill the gap in public health research regarding the polycrisis concept.
• To analyze the multifaceted, concurrent, and synergistic effects of global crises.

Main Methods:

• Reviewing the impacts of past economic, environmental, health, and political crises.
• Employing the polycrisis concept as an analytical framework.
• Synthesizing evidence on crisis entanglement and health outcomes.

Main Results:

• The polycrisis creates a complex web of challenges.
• Existing and future health inequalities are likely to be amplified.
• Crises in diverse global systems causally entangle, compounding effects.

Conclusions:

• The polycrisis framework offers valuable insights into contemporary global health challenges.
• Strategies are needed to mitigate the impacts of the polycrisis on health inequalities.
• Future research should focus on pathways to ensure health equity in an unequal future.