Relieving adult poverty, paying a living wage, reduction in fuel poverty, improving working conditions, improving neighbourhoods, and taking steps to reduce social isolation in elderly people can ...save lives.1 The health gradient to which these life course influences give rise is dramatic.
A whole systems approach that integrates action on the social determinants of health is essential to reduce the burden of non-communicable disease, argue Michael Marmot and Ruth Bell
Summary Health is a universal human aspiration and a basic human need. The development of society, rich or poor, can be judged by the quality of its population's health, how fairly health is ...distributed across the social spectrum, and the degree of protection provided from disadvantage due to ill-health. Health equity is central to this premise and to the work of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health. Strengthening health equity—globally and within countries—means going beyond contemporary concentration on the immediate causes of disease. More than any other global health endeavour, the Commission focuses on the “causes of the causes”—the fundamental structures of social hierarchy and the socially determined conditions these create in which people grow, live, work, and age. The time for action is now, not just because better health makes economic sense, but because it is right and just. The outcry against inequity has been intensifying for many years from country to country around the world. These cries are forming a global movement. The Commission on Social Determinants of Health places action to ensure fair health at the head and the heart of that movement.
The European region has seen remarkable heath gains in those populations that have experienced progressive improvements in the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, and work. However, ...inequities, both between and within countries, persist. The review reported here, of inequities in health between and within countries across the 53 Member States of the WHO European region, was commissioned to support the development of the new health policy framework for Europe: Health 2020. Much more is understood now about the extent, and social causes, of these inequities, particularly since the publication in 2008 of the report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health. The European review builds on the global evidence and recommends policies to ensure that progress can be made in reducing health inequities and the health divide across all countries, including those with low incomes. Action is needed—on the social determinants of health, across the life course, and in wider social and economic spheres—to achieve greater health equity and protect future generations.
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