Thematic guide: Social and economic determinants of health

"The social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, including the health system. These circumstances are shaped by the distribution of money, power and resources at global, national and local levels, which are themselves influenced by policy choices. The social determinants of health are mostly responsible for health inequities - the unfair and avoidable differences in health status seen within and between countries. Responding to increasing concern about these persisting and widening inequities, WHO established the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) in 2005 to provide advice on how to reduce them. The Commission's final report was launched in August 2008, and contained three overarching recommendations: 1. Improve daily living conditions ; 2. Tackle the inequitable distribution of power, money, and resources; 3. Measure and understand the problem and assess the impact of action."

• WHO topic page
  

• World Conference on Social Determinants of Health
  Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 19-21 October 2011
  www.who.int/sdhconference
• Political Declaration on Social Determinants of Health of Health
  "The Rio Political Declaration on Social Determinants of Health expresses global political commitment for the implementation of a social determinants of health approach to reduce health inequities and to achieve other global priorities. It will help to build momentum within WHO Member States for the development of dedicated national action plans and strategies." (WHO, 21 October 2011)
  www.who.int/sdhconference
• WHO discussion paper for Rio Conference:
  Closing the gap: Policy into practice on social determinants of health
  "The Discussion Paper will inform proceedings at the World Conference on Social Determinants of Health about how countries can implement action on social determinants of health, including the recommendations of the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health. It does not provide a blueprint, but instead lays out the key components that all countries need to integrate in implementing a social determinants approach."
  www.who.int/sdhconference/discussion_paper

• Protecting the Right to Health through action on the Social Determinants of Health. A Declaration by Public Interest Civil Society Organisations and Social Movements
  Rio de Janeiro, 18th October 2011
  www.phmovement.org
• Debate and action about the social determinants of health: The position of the civil society movements
  Alames and others, Rio de Janeiro, October 2011
  www.equinetafrica.org
  
• Determinants of disease, health and well-being. Rights, equity, justice: Rumpus in Rio
  Report by the PHM team at the Rio conference.
  www.wphna.org
  
• Social Determinants of Health: Redistribution, Regulation and Rights
  Remco van de Pas, Wemos, blogging for MMI from Rio:
  http://getinvolvedinglobalhealth.blogspot.com

• Healthy and unhealthy lives - socially determined
  Corinna Heineke discussing the WHO SDH conference in Rio www.huffingtonpost.co.uk
  
• Social Determinants of Health: Life after Rio
  Ted Schrecker, healthy policies, October 2011
  www.healthypolicies.com/
  
• Campaigners propose radical agenda to tackle ill-health
  Sarah Boseley in: The Guardian, October 2011
  www.guardian.co.uk

• Social determinants of health: practical solutions to deal with a well-recognized issue
  Rüdiger Krech in: WHO Bulletin (October 2011, focus on SDH)
  www.who.int/bulletin
  
• The Rio Conference on Social Determinants of Health
  Rene Loewenson in: Health Diplomacy Monitor (2011)
  www.ghd-net.org
  
• Social Determinants of Health: Resuscitating the agenda in Rio
  Ted Schrecker on: healthy policies
  http://bit.ly/px0zFo
  
• Are there particular social determinants of health for the world's poorest countries?
  EB Eshetu and SA Woldesenbet in: Afr Health Sci (2011)
  www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  
• Primary health care and the social determinants of health: essential and complementary approaches for reducing inequities in health
  Kumanan Rasanathan et al. in: JECH (2011)
  http://jech.bmj.com
  
• Tuberculosis: still a social disease
  Mario Raviglione and Rüdiger Krech in: IJTLD (2011)
  http://bit.ly/jsuMZw
• Preventive measures for social and environmental factors must be included
  Joint statement by MMI and PHM on noncommunicable diseases, World Health Assembly, 21 May 2011
  http://bit.ly/jsfXzy
• Activism as a social determinant of health
  Mark Heywood in: Equinet Newsletter (2011)
  http://www.equinetafrica.org/newsletter/index.php?issue=123
• What we mean by Social Determinants of Health
  Vicente Navarro in: International Journal of Health Services, Volume 39, Pages 423–441, 2009 (as word file)
  www.eg4health.org
  

• Improving equity in health by addressing Social Determinants.
  Commission on SDH Knowledge Networks (eds.), 2011
  http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2011/9789241503037_eng.pdf
  
• Closing the gap: Policy into practice on social determinants of health
  WHO discussion paper for Rio Conference, 2011
  http://www.who.int/sdhconference/discussion_paper
  
• Social determinants approaches to public health: from concept to practice
  Laura Altobelli, WHO 2011 (pdf)
  http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications
• County case studies on social determinants of health
  www.who.int/sdhconference/resources/case_studies
  
• Action on the Social Determinants of Health: learning from previous experiences
  WHO discussion paper 2011 (pdf)
  http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications
• A Conceptual Framework for Action on the Social Determinants of Health
  WHO discussion paper 2011 (pdf)
  http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications
• Equity, Social Determinants and Public Health Programmes
  A collection of analyses of the social determinants of health that impact on specific health conditions and relative promising interventions to improve health equity.
  WHO 2010 (pdf)
  http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications
• Social determinants of health: the solid facts
  2nd edition / edited by Richard Wilkinson and Michael Marmot. WHO Europe 2003 (pdf)
  www.euro.who.int
• Reducing health inequities through action on the social determinants of health
  World Health Assembly, Resolution WHA 62.14, 2009 (pdf, pp. 21-25)
  http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha

• Adelaide Statement on Health in All Policies
  "Government objectives are best achieved when all sectors include health and well-being as a key component of policy development. This is because the causes of health and well-being lie outside the health sector and are socially and economically formed. Although many sectors already contribute to better health, significant gaps still exist. The Adelaide Statement outlines the need for a new social contract between all sectors to advance human development, sustainability and equity, as well as to improve health outcomes." Report from the International Meeting on Health in All Policies, Adelaide 2010 (pdf).
  www.who.int/entity/social_determinants/hiap_statement
• Closing the gap in a generation: Health equity through
  action on the social determinants of health
  "Social justice is a matter of life and death. It affects the way people live, their consequent chance of illness, and their risk of premature death. We watch in wonder as life expectancy and good health continue to increase in parts of the world and in alarm as they fail to improve in others." Final report of the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health (2008)
  www.who.int/social_determinants/thecommission/finalreport
  
• People's Charter for Health
  "Health is a social, economic and political issue and above all a fundamental human right. Inequality, poverty, exploitation, violence and injustice are at the root of ill‐health and the deaths of poor and marginalised people. Health for all means that powerful interests have to be challenged, that globalisation has to be opposed, and that political and economic priorities have to be drastically changed." The charter was endorsed by the first People's Health Assembly, Savar, Bangladesh, 2000.
  www.phmovement.org
• Declaration of Alma Ata
  "The existing gross inequality in the health status of the people particularly between developed and developing countries as well as within countries is politically, socially and economically unacceptable and is, therefore, of common concern to all countries. Economic and social development, based on a New International Economic Order, is of basic importance to the fullest attainment of health for all and to the reduction of the gap between the health status of the developing and developed countries. The promotion and protection of the health of the people is essential to sustained economic and social development and contributes to a better quality of life and to world peace." International Conference on Primary Health Care, Alma Ata, USSR, 1978 (pdf)
  www.who.int/hpr/NPH/docs/declaration_almaata.pdf
  

• Action:SDH. An electronic discussion platform on social determinants of health
  By WHO, 2011
  http://www.actionsdh.org/
  
• UN Report on the World Social Situation 2011
  http://social.un.org/index/ReportontheWorldSocialSituation/2011.aspx
  
• PAHO/WHO self-instructional course on social determinants of health
  http://dds-dispositivoglobal.ops.org.ar/curso/
• PAHO/WHO blog on social determinants of health
  http://new.paho.org/blogs/dss/
  

• Economic governance for health
  "Global economic governance matters to global health. Existing arrangements for global economic governance are undemocratic, unfair and undermine global health goal. The health community should be at the vanguard of efforts to reform global economic governance. Support EG4Health to give the global health community the voice and power to make change happen."
  http://www.eg4health.org/
• see our thematic guide "global health policy and governance"
  www.medicusmundi.org