Module: Health Inequalities and the Social Determinants of Health

Lecture: Social Inequalities and Health (Part 3)

The lectures in weeks one, two and thre will introduce a number of the key theoretical and conceptual foundations to health inequalities and their social determinants including:

  • Definitions of inequality and inequity, and their different dimensions and applications.
  • The different ways in which social inequalities in health are measured and described 
  • the different meanings attributed to the concept of ‘social determinants’
  • the theories that explain the social causation of health inequalities; including their interaction with other non-social factors
  • The tension between individual and population-wide epidemiology / risk factor analysis


Seminar: The Spirit Level - Grand Explanation or Grand Delusion?

 

This seminar will be based on the vigorous debate surrounding the Spirit Level. Students will be expected to have familiarised themselves with the evidence, theories and arguments of both Wilkinson and Pickett, as well as their critics. The debates surrounding the Spirit Level will be used to help students discuss the nature of evidence in the social sciences, as well as the politics of evidence formation and policy making in the field of public and social policy.


Compulsory Readings


Additional Readings

 

  • Walsh JA and Warren KS, 1980. Selective Primary Health Care — An Interim Strategy for Disease Control in Developing Countries. New England JournaI of Medicine. Vol. 301. pp. 967-914. 1979. (read it here)
  • Rifkin S and Walt G, 1986. Why Health Improves: Defining the Issues concerning ‘comprehensive PHC’ and selective PHC.  Social Science and Medicine, Vol. 23, No. 6: 559-566. (read it here)
  • Ng NY and Ruger JP, 2011. Global Health Governance at a Crossroads (read it here)
  • David Werner and David Sanders. Questioning the Solution. The Politics of Primary Health Care and Child Survival. Chapter 2. (read it here)
  • http://www.healthwrights.org/hw/content/books/QTS/qts_ch02.pdf
  • Stuckler D, Siegel K, de Vogli R and Basu S, 2012. Chapter 2: Sick individuals, sick populations: The societal determinants of chronic diseases. In Sick Societies: Responding to the Global Challenge of Chronic Disease. Oxford University Press.

Lecture Notes and Powerpoints