Determinants Of Health Essay

1. What are non-medical determinants of health?

The WHO definition of non-medical determinants of health is: “… the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life. These forces and systems include economic policies and systems, development agendas, social norms, social policies and political systems.”

The nature of these factors are (from downstream to upstream): Biological, Infrastructural, Educational, Economic, Social and Political. And it is a complex mixture of (and not limit to): individual infrastructure (housing, food access, employment, income), social environment (sanitation, drinking water) and social support (governmental aid for the poor),

How do non-medical determinants of health affect patients?

Non-medical determinants of health have the greater impact in people’s health. They are also the most challenging (but not impossible) to interfere/change. In general, education and income are associated with child mortality, being the latter most important, once poverty dictates many aspects of life including opportunities for education.

In the Nepal’s example on the web, the child sickness was due to lack of education on food hygiene and lack of infrastructure (sanitation and drinking water). Thus, teaching the mother about treating water before drinking and the importance of hygiene in handling aliments would prevent the child diarrhea episode and even save the other son that died in the past from this disease.

3. How do poor health outcomes in the US affect children (especially poor

How dos the UA compare to other high-income countries in health outcomes?

In a worldwide comparison of health status we can observe that, despite the fact that the USA leads the ranking on health expenditure, this do not translate into a better health for the US population. In fact, when comparing health indicators, not only US does not rank among the best, but for most all of the important health indicators measured (life expectance, child mortality, as examples) the US is bellow the average of those indicator among the most affluent industrialized nations.

6. What are 6 key interventions (and corresponding real life examples) that can limit preventable death among children?

Interventions on non-medical determinants of health have the potential to prevent most of the causes for under-five mortality, the 6 key interventions (and real life examples) are:

a. Caring for newborns – Paid parental leave

b. Ensuring children are well-nourished and dewormed – USDA program WIC (US) for helping mothers and children with food and nutrition for poor families

c. Immunizing mothers and children – GAVI, the Vaccine