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Social Determinants of Health

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Handbook of the Philosophy of Medicine

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Abstract

This chapter discusses social determinants of health, an area of research and health policy initially coming out of epidemiology. Two categories of philosophical issues are presented including epistemological issues related to casual explanations as well as ethical issues related to health inequalities and social justice. In pursuing better explanations of causation and distribution of disease, social epidemiology expands the scope of causal chain outward beyond factors on or within the body as well as upward in terms of nested spaces such as family, neighborhood, region, country, and global system. New thinking about the ethical value of health and well-being and the causal role of social factors in producing inequalities in health raise questions of social justice and require drawing on disciplines such as political philosophy that evaluate conceptions of a good or just society.

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Further Reading

  • A popular and accessible overview of the science of SDH is presented in Wilkinson R, Marmot MG (1998) Social determinants of health: the solid facts. Centre for Urban Health/World Health Organization/Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen. For an economist’s view on SDH across time and geography seen Deaton AA (2013) The great escape: health, wealth, and the origins of inequality, Princeton University. The journals of Public Health Ethics, Bioethics and International Journal of Epidemiology are good sources for the most recent literature on the issues presented.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank John Wiley and Sons for permission to draw on an article published in Bioethics journal titled Epidemiology and Social Justice in Light of Social Determinants of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Global Health & Social Medicine, King’s College London, London, WC2R 2LS, UK

    Sridhar Venkatapuram

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  1. Sridhar Venkatapuram
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Correspondence to Sridhar Venkatapuram .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Philosophisches Seminar, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Thomas Schramme

  2. Philosophy, History and Law, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom

    Steven Edwards

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Venkatapuram, S. (2016). Social Determinants of Health. In: Schramme, T., Edwards, S. (eds) Handbook of the Philosophy of Medicine. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8706-2_72-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8706-2_72-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-8706-2

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