The theory and measurement of the social determinants of health featured in a three-part seminar series on Social Determinants of Health, Law and Policy held at the Taubman Center for Public Policy, Brown University in February 2012. The seminar series represents a broader commitment to engage the public, health providers, researchers, and policy makers in dialogue for the purposes of identifyi...

In Canada, health care reform is underway to address escalating costs, access and quality of care issues, and existing personnel shortages in various health disciplines. One response of the nursing profession to these stimuli has been the development of the advanced practice nurse, namely, the nurse practitioner (NP). NPs are in an excellent position to address current shortcomings through incr...

It is a sad fact that Canada’s Aboriginal people, whether living in rural communities or in urban centers, have a significantly lower life expectancy than non-Aboriginal Canadians.1 The gap in health status of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples is a matter of ongoing concern;2 recognizing and understanding the social determinants of health is key to understanding the difference in health status and, i...

Background: Terrorism-related deaths are at an all-time high as there were 32,685 and 29,376 terrorism-related deaths in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Terrorism is defined as the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims. Terrorism is detrimental for mental health, premature mortality, and economic losses and undermines the central tenets of public health to improve the h...

The past 25 years have seen enormous shifts in the environmental, political, economic and social landscapes that condition people's abilities to be healthy. Climate change is now a reality. China, India, Brazil and other 'developing' countries are emerging as new axes of political and economic power. Global capitalism has become increasingly predatory and crisis ridden, a result of unregulated ...

Unfortunately, most nation states have taken “health policy” to mean “medical care policy.” Medical care, however, is only one variable in a nation’s health equation. The article describes what the main components of a national health policy should be, including (1) the political, economic, social, and cultural determinants of health, the most important determinants of health in any country; (2...

health, as a public good, and equity in health, as a moral concept are considered as human right. equity in health is defined as lack of systematic discrepancies in health or social determinants of health among different groups of a community. social justice is considered as a matter of life and death. it is believe that inappropriate distribution of health services is one of the major determin...

In 2014 both the Institute of Medicine and the National Quality Forum recommended the inclusion of social determinants of health data in electronic health records (EHRs). Both entities primarily focus on collecting socioeconomic and health behavior data directly from individual patients. The burden of reliably, accurately, and consistently collecting such information is substantial, and it may ...