Social Determinants of Health Discussion Paper 1 (Debates). This paper was prepared for the launch of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) by its secretariat based at WHO in Geneva. It was discussed by the Commissioners and then revised considering their input.
This video is a 4-minute summary of the Determinants of Health! Determinants are factors that can influence a person’s health. While the focus of health interventions has typically been, who people are and what they do, the conditions in which they are born, grow, live, work and age are critically... important in determining the health of individuals and communities.
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Social inequalities are perpetuating unhealthy living and working conditions and behaviours. These causes are commonly called ‘the social determinants of health’. Achieving greater equity in health will demand that the health sector assumes a greater leadership role in addressing social inequali...ties. This requires equipping health and care workers to better understand how the social determinants of health impact patients and communities. Education of the health workforce is thus a key step to advancing action. Integration of the social determinants of health into education and training will prepare the workforce to adjust clinical practice, define appropriate public health programmes and leverage cross-sector policies and mechanisms.
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Good mental health is integral to human health and well being. A person’s mental health and many common mental disorders are shaped by various social, economic, and physical environments operating at different stages of life. Risk factors for many common mental disorders are heavily associated wit...h social inequalities, whereby the greater the inequality the higher the inequality in risk.
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This publication examines this social gradient in health, and explains how psychological and social influences affect physical health and longevity. It then looks at what is known about the most important social determinants of health today, and the role that public policy can play in shaping a soci...al environment that is more conducive to better health.
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89% of health occurs outside of the clinical space through our genetics, behavior, environment and social circumstances. These factors are known as the social determinants of health. Despite their importance, attempts to integrate the determinants into a single visualization have been limited.
Ac...cessed 30th March 2019
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We need to understand the constitutional determinants of planetary health. A constitution denotes one, or in a minority of countries, several, legal documents that contain basic rules and principles about how political power should be exercised and how public goods should to be provided.
The Social Determinants of Health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live and age. They have a large influence on our health. It also determines health inequities, which is the unfair and avoidable health difference between different groups of people In this video we take a look at t...he social determinants of health..what they are, how it impacts health and a useful framework to understand it.
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DHS Working Papers No. 103
Rising levels of inflation, debt and macrofiscal tightening are putting expenditures on the social sectors including health under immense scrutiny. Already, there are worrying signs of reductions in social sector investments. However, even before the pandemic, evidence showed the significant returns... on investments in health equity and its social determinants. Emerging data and trends show that these potential returns have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic - investments in social determinants can mitigate widespread reductions in human capital and the increasing likelihood of costly syndemics, while promoting access to healthcare innovations that have thus far been inequitably distributed. Therefore, we argue that, despite immediate fiscal pressures, this is exactly the time to invest in health equity and its broader social determinants, as the returns on such investments have never been greater.
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DHS Working Papers No. 93
To understand the patterns of Rwanda’s achievements in health development, it is important to explore how Rwanda addresses the Social Determinants of Health (SDH) particularly those related to routine conditions in which people are born, live and work. It is in this particular context that a case ...study on Rwanda’s Performance in Addressing Social Determinants of Health was conducted by the Rwanda Ministry of Health, with technical and financial support from the World Health Organization (WHO). The overall goal of the exercise was to document Rwanda's recent initiatives that contribute to the advancements of the Rio Political Declaration on Social Determinants of Health.
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In 21st century capitalism, financial markets reign supreme. The elevation of investing, trading, and speculating as a way of making profit has shifted economic power towards institutional investors and enhanced the power of financial capital. Financialisation has introduced uncertainty in the commi...tment to public provision of goods and services. The behaviours of corporations focus more on profit for shareholders and senior executives to the detriment of wages, worker protections, livelihoods, and impact on prices and the environment. The practices of this financial system
pose major challenges to public health and planetary health equity through the influence on social inequality, climate change, and health outcomes. The aim of this Viewpoint is to expand the understanding of the commercial determinants of health to explicitly include the financial system and present key plausible pathways via which the financialisation of advanced economies influences public health and planetary health equity.
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Further analysis of the 2011 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey