Since it’s separation from India in 1947, Pakistan steadily grew to a country with a population of about 184.35 million people in 2013, making it the sixth most populous country in the world (“About Pakistan”). Pakistan is broken into four provinces: Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (“About Pakistan”). Its capital is the city of Islamabad. While Pakistan has taken many steps to improve the state of its people in recent years, the prevalence of poverty, gender inequality, inequities, political instability and a struggling economy have proved very challenging for the country (“About Pakistan”). These factors also…show more content… Balochistan is the worst performing province in terms of MDGs while Punjab seems to be performing the best (“Millennium Development Goals”). While there have been improvements in certain indicators and a few have been achieved in some provinces, no province in Pakistan will be able to achieve a MDG in its entirety (“Millennium Development Goals”).
Major Determinants of Health
There are many different determinants of health in a country. Social determinants of health are conditions in which people are born, grow, live and work ("Addressing Social Determinants of Health in Pakistan”). These determinants are contributors to health inequities and burden of disease in countries across the globe, including Pakistan ("Addressing Social Determinants of Health in Pakistan”). Some of the most prominent factors in Pakistan include gender inequality, uneven distribution of income, political instability and political reinforcement of inequality and are all determinants that need to be addressed in order to improve health outcomes ("Addressing Social Determinants of Health in Pakistan”).
Tables 1 through 4 in the Appendix highlight some major social indicators of health in Pakistan as well as summarize some of Pakistan’s largest health problems. The tables also include data on maternal mortality and fertility in Pakistan as well as the economic burden and