Cambridge IGCSE Global Perspectives (0457): Topic: Health and wellbeing — Study Guide

This guide uses the topic Health and wellbeing from the Cambridge IGCSE Global Perspectives (0457) syllabus for examination in 2025, 2026 and 2027, Version 2 (published April 2025). Health and wellbeing is on the topic list in section 3 of the syllabus; the skills you practise with it are set out in section 2 (assessment objectives) and section 4 (details of the assessment). The syllabus says the topic list is for all components, so this topic could be the context of the Component 1 Written Exam, or you could choose it for your Component 2 Individual Report or Component 3 Team Project. Knowledge of this topic is not assessed. This page shows you how to use the topic to practise the skills that are.

Pair this guide with the Health and wellbeing revision notes and the Health and wellbeing practice questions. For the whole course, use the Global Perspectives hub and the 0457 checklist.

Coverage

Syllabus reference	What you must be able to do (from the document)	Where assessed
Section 3, topic list	Health and wellbeing is one of the topics; the topic list is for all components	Components 1, 2 and 3
Section 3, key terms	Use the syllabus meanings of issue, perspective, research, evidence and argument	All components
Section 2, AO1 Research, analysis and evaluation	Research global issues, their causes and consequences and possible course(s) of action; use evidence to support claims; analyse and evaluate evidence, reasoning and sources; develop a line of reasoning	Components 1, 2 and 3
Section 2, AO2 Reflection	Consider different perspectives objectively and with empathy; justify personal perspective(s) using evidence and reasoning	Components 2 and 3 (0% of Component 1)
Section 2, AO3 Communication and collaboration	Present arguments, evidence and perspectives clearly with structure; include citations and references; contribute to the Team Project	Components 2 and 3 (0% of Component 1)
Section 4, Component 1	Understand bias, claim, fact, generalisation, opinion, prediction, value and vested interest; analyse and evaluate use of evidence and language	Component 1
Section 4, Component 2	A global issue that divides opinion; a global research question as the title; local and/or national and global perspectives; causes, consequences, courses of action and one proposed course of action	Component 2
Section 4, Component 3	A local issue; research into different perspectives; a planned and completed action; measuring its success	Component 3

Why topic knowledge earns no marks

Section 3 of the syllabus says: “Knowledge of content is not assessed in this syllabus.” For the Written Exam, section 4 adds that candidates are “not assessed on their prior knowledge and understanding of the topic or global issue presented in the source material”.

So learning facts about diseases, diets or hospitals will not earn marks by itself. Marks come from the skills the syllabus names: research, analysis and evaluation, reflection, communication and collaboration. Health is a good topic for practising them because it touches everyone. Almost every source on health has a personal angle, a government angle and an international angle. It also produces plenty of numbers, claims and adverts that you can test.

Health and wellbeing: what the words cover

Use your own working definitions, and say where they come from.

• Health: the Constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO), adopted in 1946 and in force from 1948, defines it as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”.
• Wellbeing: how well a person feels and functions overall, including mood, relationships, sleep and sense of purpose. It is wider than being free of illness.
• Public health: action by governments and communities to protect the health of a whole population, such as vaccination, clean water or food rules.
• Health inequality: differences in health between groups, for example between rich and poor areas.

The WHO definition is itself a perspective. Critics argue that “complete” well-being sets a bar almost nobody reaches. Supporters reply that it reminds governments that mental and social health matter too. Showing that even a definition can be debated is good evaluation practice.

Finding issues at global, national and local level

The syllabus defines an issue as “an important subject or problem for discussion”. A topic is broad. An issue is a specific problem inside it that people disagree about.

Level	Example issues within Health and wellbeing
Global	Fair access to vaccines and medicines between rich and poor countries; antibiotics becoming less effective (antimicrobial resistance); rising rates of non-communicable diseases such as type 2 diabetes; preparing for future pandemics
National	Whether health care should be free at the point of use or paid through insurance; taxes on sugary drinks or tobacco; whether some vaccinations should be compulsory; funding for mental health services
Local	Distance to the nearest clinic in rural areas; fast-food outlets near schools; safe places for young people to exercise; school meals; stress and sleep among students

A strong answer shows how the levels link. A national tax on sugary drinks (national) is a response to a pattern seen in many countries (global), and it changes what is sold in your school canteen (local).

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, agreed in 2015, include Goal 3: “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”. You can use this to show that an issue is recognised at global level. Remember that a goal is a value statement about what should happen, not evidence about what is happening.

Perspectives: who thinks what, and why

The syllabus defines a perspective as “a viewpoint on an issue based on evidence and reasoning”. AO2 asks you to “consider different perspectives objectively and with empathy”. That means explaining why a group holds its view, not only what the view is.

Health issues usually involve these groups:

• Patients and families: care about cost, distance, waiting times and dignity.
• Health workers: care about workload, safety and resources.
• Governments: weigh health against cost, jobs and votes.
• Businesses (food, drink, tobacco, medicine makers): have a vested interest, meaning a financial stake in the outcome.
• International bodies such as WHO: focus on global patterns and cooperation.
• Religious and cultural groups: may hold values about the body, diet or treatment.

Worked example (fictional). The health authority in the fictional region of Marrow plans to close three small village clinics and open one large hospital in the main town.

The health authority’s perspective is that one large hospital can afford specialist staff and equipment that three small clinics cannot, so patients with serious illness would get better care. Older residents in the villages hold a different perspective. Many do not drive, so a longer journey may stop them seeking help early, which could make illnesses more serious. Their view is based on a value of access and closeness, while the authority’s is based on a value of quality and efficiency. Both use reasoning, so the disagreement is really about which value should come first.

The paragraph names two groups, explains the reasoning behind each, and identifies the values underneath. That is the move examiners reward, rather than “some people agree and some disagree”.

Causes and consequences

AO1 asks you to research issues, “their causes and consequences”. Health issues rarely have a single cause. Separate them into types:

• Individual causes: diet, exercise, sleep, smoking.
• Social and economic causes: income, housing, education, cost of healthy food.
• Environmental causes: air quality, unsafe water, lack of green space.
• Political causes: health spending, laws, advertising rules.

Worked chain: antimicrobial resistance (a global issue). WHO describes antimicrobial resistance as one of the top global public health threats.

Cause	Consequence
Antibiotics are overused or misused in people (for example, taken for viral infections they cannot treat)	Bacteria that survive become resistant, so common infections become harder to treat
Antibiotics are widely used in farm animals	Resistant bacteria can spread through food chains and the environment
Few new antibiotics are being developed	Doctors have fewer options; hospital stays become longer and more costly

Notice that one cause is personal (patient behaviour), one is economic (farming practice) and one is global (research and investment). When you explain a consequence, say who is affected and how. “It is bad for health” earns little. “Routine operations become riskier because infections after surgery are harder to treat” earns more.

Judging sources and evidence

Section 4 says Written Exam candidates “will benefit from an understanding of the following: bias, claim, fact, generalisation, opinion, prediction, value and vested interest”. Health sources are full of them, especially in adverts, social media posts and campaign material.

Questions to ask of any health source:

• Who produced it, and do they gain from the claim? A company selling a product has a vested interest.
• Is it a fact or an opinion? “The clinic opens at 8 am” can be checked. “The clinic is badly run” cannot be checked in the same way.
• What is the sample? How many people, how were they chosen, and do they represent the group in the claim?
• Is it self-reported? People’s reports of their own diet or exercise are often inaccurate.
• Does it show cause or only a link? Two things rising together does not prove one caused the other.
• Is there a comparison group? Without one, you cannot tell whether the change would have happened anyway.

Worked example (fictional). An advert for “CalmLeaf” herbal drops states: “In our trial, 9 out of 10 users felt less stressed after two weeks.”

The claim comes from the company that sells CalmLeaf, so it has a vested interest in a positive result. “9 out of 10” sounds impressive, but the advert does not give the sample size; if the trial had 40 users, that is 36 people, which is too few to generalise to everyone. “Felt less stressed” is self-reported and has no comparison group, so we cannot tell whether stress fell because of the drops, because people expected to feel better, or because the two weeks were simply calmer. The evidence is therefore weak support for the claim that CalmLeaf reduces stress.

The paragraph identifies the source, names three specific weaknesses, explains why each matters, and ends with a judgement on how far the evidence supports the claim.

Courses of action and their effects

AO1 includes researching “possible course(s) of action”. The Written Exam’s final question asks candidates to “assess actions in response to the global issue”. In the Individual Report you must propose a single course of action and explain how it could be put into practice and what its impact would be.

Judge any action using the same few criteria: effectiveness (does it tackle the cause?), cost and who pays, fairness (who gains and who loses?), side effects, sustainability (will it last?) and who acts (individuals, government, business or international bodies).

Real examples you can use to practise:

• Sugary drinks taxes. Mexico introduced a tax of one peso per litre on sugar-sweetened drinks in 2014. The UK’s Soft Drinks Industry Levy started in April 2018; it charges producers by sugar content, and many manufacturers cut the sugar in their drinks before it began. Supporters see these as evidence that price signals change behaviour. Opponents argue such taxes take a bigger share of income from poorer households and that diet depends on much more than drinks.
• Tobacco control. The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was adopted in 2003 and came into force in 2005. It shows countries agreeing common rules on a health issue across borders.
• Smallpox. WHO declared smallpox eradicated in 1980 after a global vaccination campaign. It is a strong example of international cooperation, though most diseases are harder to eradicate.

Worked evaluation paragraph.

A tax on sugary drinks is likely to be effective in reducing sugar intake because it targets one clear source of sugar and gives manufacturers a reason to change recipes, as happened when many cut sugar before the UK levy began. However, it treats only one cause; people may switch to sweets or other high-sugar foods. It also raises fairness concerns because poorer families spend more of their income on food. On balance, a tax works best as one part of a wider plan, for example if the money raised funds free water and sport in schools.

Ideas for the Individual Report

The syllabus says your issue “should be one that divides opinion”, and your question must allow local and/or national and global perspectives. Possible questions:

• Should governments tax unhealthy food and drink to improve public health?
• Should countries be allowed to recruit health workers from countries with staff shortages?
• Should rich countries share vaccine technology freely with poorer countries during a pandemic?
• Should schools, rather than families, be responsible for young people’s mental wellbeing?

Each has clearly different perspectives. For the vaccine question: a pharmaceutical company (protecting the research investment that pays for new medicines), a lower-income government (needing affordable supply), and WHO (stressing that a disease anywhere can spread everywhere). Your teacher will confirm whether your question is manageable.

Ideas for the Team Project

The Team Project needs a local issue and an action your team can carry out and measure. Health ideas that fit a school or neighbourhood:

Local issue	Possible action	How to measure success
Students drink many sugary drinks at school	Campaign plus refillable-bottle stations	Before-and-after survey; canteen sales records
Girls take part in less sport than boys	Run a girls-only activity club for six weeks	Attendance counts; short feedback survey
Students report poor sleep before exams	Assembly and leaflet on sleep habits	Sleep diary from volunteers before and after
Older neighbours feel isolated	Weekly student visit or phone call scheme	Number of contacts; simple wellbeing scale

Keep sensitive topics at the level of awareness and signposting to trusted adults and services. Each team member should research a different aspect, such as a different perspective, as section 4 describes.

Common errors

• Writing what you already know about health instead of using the source in front of you.
• Calling a source “biased” without naming the vested interest or quoting the loaded word.
• Treating a single personal story as proof of a national pattern (a generalisation).
• Confusing a link between two trends with proof that one caused the other.
• Listing perspectives without explaining the reasons and values behind them.
• Proposing an action without judging its cost, fairness or side effects.
• Choosing an Individual Report question that has only one obvious answer.
• Choosing a Team Project action that cannot be measured.

Where to go next

Read the component guides: Written Exam, Individual Report and Team Project. For more skills practice, use the Written Exam practice questions and the Written Exam revision notes.

Official syllabus

Cambridge IGCSE Global Perspectives (0457) syllabus for examination in 2025, 2026 and 2027, Version 2 (published April 2025), published by Cambridge International. Health and wellbeing is listed in section 3; the assessment objectives are in section 2 and the component details and command words in section 4.