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Dr KK Aggarwal 14 October 2019
There are a series of factors that determine our health; access to social and economic facilities being the most prominent of all. For instance, factors like the conditions in which people are born and the conditions in which they live, work and grow old can impact an individual’s health to a greater extent. These factors directly influence the quality and length of life along with impacting the possibilities of disability-free life.
In most of the cases, medical professionals only evaluate the proximate causes of diseases like smoking, obesity, disrupted lifestyle and alcohol. But the real “causes of causes” are often ignored, which make up for the root of all the medical ills prevailing in the society. However, the effective social determinants approach goes beyond just focusing on proximate causes and seeks to address what actually aggravates premature ill health and the contributing factors.
For instance, the lower people are in the socioeconomic hierarchy, the more they smoke, the more incomplete their diet, and the less physical activity they engage in. Education dominates all the other factors like excessive alcohol consumption, taxation, price and availability, bans on advertising, smoking in public places and tobacco consumption.
Examples of social determinants include:
The world is witnessing a universal movement that seeks to address gross inequalities in health and length of life through action on the social determinants of health. This movement has involved the World Health Organization, several national governments, civil society organization, and academics. Solutions are being sought and learnings shared.
WMA insists that doctors should be well-informed participants in this debate. The medical professionals can be advocates for action on those social conditions that have important effects on health. In addition to this, WMA has agreed to add significant value to the necessary actions being taken:
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