Towards the social in the social determinants of health

Excerpt

Public health researchers and professionals have understood for quite a while that influencing social determinants of health requires a comprehensive, multi-faceted action. The WHO Commission on Social Determinant of Health provides a useful summary of the challenges that we are facing with global health inequalities. The global perspective is described concisely by Denny Vågerö from the Commission (Vågerö 2008). Yet, our recommendations, policies and practices have tended to focus on end of the policy spectrum that rests on influencing the individual. This is mainly due to the inherent nature of many of the models applied and developed in health research. We tend to concentrate on facilitating (health-enhancing) individual choices, assuming an informed choice. A similar ill-founded assumption of informed choice underlies in the model of ‘an economic man’ applied by the economists. …