The United Nations Declaration of 2000 agreed on eight millennium development goals (MDGs) to be met in 2015. The results show that poverty continues through population growth and advances in both rich and poor countries are threatened by economic crises and inequities in geographic areas and population groups within countries. In a globalized world with great social and economic inequalities, ...

Background The responsiveness of a health system is considered to be an intrinsic goal of  health systems and an essential aspect in performance assessment. Numerous studies have analysed health system responsiveness and related concepts, especially across different countries and health systems. However, fewer studies have applied the concept for the evaluation of specific healthcare delivery s...

BACKGROUND Current evidence consistently confirm inequalities in health status among socioeconomic none, gender,ethnicity, geographical area and other social determinants of health (SDH), which adversely influence health ofthe population. SDH refer to a wide range of factors not limited to social component, but also involve economic, cultural,educational, political or environmental problems. Me...

Asian American (ASA) children experience high rates of mental health problems. Although there is a pressing need to utilize population approaches, emerging frameworks from the fields of public and population health have not been applied to ASA children. This paper addresses this gap by first discussing applications of the National Prevention Strategy (NPS), a population strategy developed from ...

BACKGROUND One of the main challenges of healthcare systems of developing countries is health inequality. Health inequality means inequality in individuals' ability and proper functioning, resulting in inequality in social status and living conditions, which thwarts social interventions implemented by the government. OBJECTIVES This study aimed to determine and prioritize the social determina...

This article is the third in a three-part review of research on globalization and the social determinants of health (SDH). In the first article of the series, we identified and defended an economically oriented definition of globalization and addressed a number of important conceptual and metholodogical issues. In the second article, we identified and described seven key clusters of pathways re...

The theory of social determinants of health (SDH) posits that the health of people and communities is affected by social and economic factors (i.e., economic stability, education, neighborhood and built environment, health and health care, and social and community context). These interrelated constructs may negatively affect minority patients’ ability to participate in cancer research. Understa...

Health equity has started to receive significant attention among Canadian policy-makers, with acknowledgement at both the federal and provincial levels of the importance of reducing health inequities. However, a challenging budget environment has led to a number of budget cutbacks in areas that are likely to negatively influence social determinants of health, such as housing, education, and soc...

BACKGROUND In order to improve the health of the most vulnerable groups in society, the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) called for multi-sectoral action, which requires research and policy on the multiple and inter-linking factors shaping health outcomes. Most conceptual tools available to researchers tend to focus on singular and specific social determinants of health (S...

Globalization is a key context for the study of social determinants of health (SDH). Broadly stated, SDH are the conditions in which people live and work, and that affect their opportunities to lead healthy lives.In this first article of a three-part series, we describe the origins of the series in work conducted for the Globalization Knowledge Network of the World Health Organization's Commiss...