Ongoing Health Inequalities and the Social Determinants of Health

Dear Colleagues,

The social determinants of health (SDOH) have been the guiding framework for social science research on health inequality for decades—and justifiably so. The concept effectively highlights the deep and complex ways a person’s health status and longevity are contingent on their social, political, and ecological environments. The concept was first coined by Marmot and Wilkinson (1999) in a book entitled Social Determinants of Health, which argued that the differences in health outcomes between population groups are due to the characteristics of society, not simply individual risk factors and biology. The SDOH conceptualized health as intrinsically affected by upstream structural conditions such as under- or unemployment, working conditions, safe neighborhoods, access to housing and food security, and social marginalization and exclusion, including racism, ableism, ageism, queer- and transphobia, sexism, and poverty (López & Gadsden, 2017; Raphael, Bryant, Mikkonen & Raphael, 2020). By 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) published an international report on global health inequalities highlighting the role of governance, policy, and culture on population health and well-being.

In the last 10–15 years, there has been continued focus on the social and political determinants of health from within a range of social science disciplines including, but not limited to: population health and demography, sociology, anthropology, political science, women and gender studies, critical disability studies, Indigenous studies, globalization, environmental studies, social studies of science and medicine, and critical race studies. The SDOH are exacerbated under austere social and economic policies, which are an effect of the growing neo-liberalization of health and medicine (Raphael & Bryant, 2022). Guided by market-based values of privatization, consumerism, a lack of government oversight, and individualized responsibility for health and wellbeing, health equity gaps are worsening, not improving (Viens, 2019). Health equity gaps also intensified through the global COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, especially as they affect marginalized populations (Sabet et al., 2024). Given its holistic account of personhood and its ability to account for the social and political conditions in which we live, the SDOH remains a vital area of inquiry for understanding and addressing contemporary health inequalities.

To make this collection as widely useful, engaging, and inclusive as possible, we welcome a range of contributions including, but not limited to:

• Disability, Indigenous identity, gender, racialization, class, age, 2SLGBTQIA+ identity, chronic illness, mental health, immigration, refugee and/or citizenship status, and the SDOH;
• Transportation; employment; working conditions; neighborhoods; social exclusion; food security; income, income distribution, and/or education; and their effects on health and/or longevity;
• Public policy and the SDOH;
• SDOH and environmental exposures;
• Cancer, heart disease, accidents, mental illness, chronic pain, diabetes, addictions, COVID-19/long COVID and the SDOH;
• Inter- and intra-population health;
• Stress, bodies, and illness.

Submissions are encouraged and welcomed from individuals and/or co-authored proposals, and from both established and new and emerging scholars, extending to graduate and international students. If you have any questions regarding submission abstracts, please feel free to contact: [email protected] and/or [email protected].

The expected length of abstracts is approximately 250–350 words. The submission deadline is 7 June 2024. You can refer to the Author Instructions link for more general information (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/socsci/instructions).

Submission types may include conventional research based on qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-method primary research data or reviews of secondary data that provide an overall assessment of the state of knowledge on a specific topic, based on a review of recent and relevant research in that area. Also welcome are field reports or narratives that reflect the perspectives/experiences of practitioners, activists, scholars, or others, in the form of case studies, reports, stories, or diaries.

References

• López, N. & Gadsden, V. L. (2017). Health inequalities, social determinants, and intersectionality. In Perspectives on Health Equity and Social Determinants of Health (A. C. Murry & B. K. Bogard Eds.), National Academies Press, Washington, DC.
• Marmot, M. & Wilkinson, R. G. (1999). Social Determinants of Health. Oxford University Press.
• NASEM. Integrating social care into the delivery of health care: Moving upstream to improve the nation’s health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press; 2019a.
• Osmick, M.J. et al., (2020). Social Determinants of Health—Relevant History, A Call to Action, An Organization’s Transformational Story, and What Can Employers Do? American Journal of Health Promotion, 3(2), 219 - 224. https://doi.org/10.1177/0890117119896122d.
• Raphael, B. & Bryant, T. (2022). Emerging Themes in Social Determinants of Health Theory and Research. International Journal of Health Services, 52 (4), 428 - 432. DOI: 10.1177/00207314221109515.
• Raphael, D., Bryant, T., Mikkonen, J., & Raphael, A. (2020). Social determinants of health: Canadian Facts (2nd edition). https://thecanadianfacts.org/The_Canadian_Facts-2nd_ed.pdf.
• Sabet, F. I. et al., (2024). Social determinants of health during and after coronavirus: a qualitative study. BMC PUblic Health, 24, 283. doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-17785-7.
• Viens, A. M. (2019). Neo-liberalism, austerity, and the political determinants of health. Health Care Analysis, 27, 147 - 152. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10728-019-00377-7#citeas.
• World Health Organization Commission on Social Determinants of Health. A Conceptual Framework for Action on the Social Determinants of health. 33. 2010.

Dr. Alissa Overend
Dr. Tiffany Boulton
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• health inequality
• health disparity
• social determinants of health
• political determinants of health
• marginalized populations
• healthy populations
• longevity rates