Social Determinants of Population Health

Question 1

what are the 3 questions that are asked when examining the SDOH?

Answer 1

1. what are the social factors that shape health and explain health inequalities?
2. what are the social forces that shape the quality and distribution of these factors?
3. what is it about canadas political and economic systems that makes addressing SDOH through public policy so difficult?

Question 2

how is work related to health? what are the aspects of work that are found to be associated with health (6)?

Answer 2

• unemployment is associated with negaitive health outcomes
• high demand and low control in a job is a stressful job and leads to more risk in terms of health and well being
  1. low decision making authority
  2. job demand/stress
  3. low control over work
  4. lack of opportunity to use knowledge and skills
  5 .lack of rewards
  6. work environment

Question 3

how does unemployment affect health at an individual or family level?

Answer 3

• unemployment is a risk factor for poor health, especially poor mental health and premature death
• unemployment has financial and psychosocial implications for individuals and their families
• job insecurity increases individuals’ anxiety which could lead to poor productivity, physical and mental health problems, family conflicts, addictions…. premature death

Question 4

how does uneployment affect health at a populatin level?

Answer 4

• increased sickness absence

- higher utilization of health services

Question 5

what are some policies/support programs to help with the issue of unemployment?

Answer 5

to prevent unemployment: Job training for newcomers; job training for persons with dissability

to support those unemployed to reduce negative impact: (un)employment insurance (EI)l; short term and long term dissability insurance

Question 6

how does social support affect to health?

Answer 6

• social support and good quality relationships at home, work, and in the community are found to be associated with good health
• social support and relationships provide people with the needed emotional and practival resources
• over the past two decades, research has shown that the level of social support is significantly associated with a number of different health outcomes including self-rated health
• social support is important not only to the health of individuals but also communities

Question 7

what is social capital

Answer 7

• A concept to examine aspects of social organization (e.g., civic participation, and trust in others) that facilitate cooperation among community members.
• the networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively.

Question 8

how are high levels of social capital linked to? (4)

Answer 8

• lower mortality rates
• lower rates of crime
• more positive perceptions of health
• better sense of belonging

Question 9

social epi. is a branch of _____

Answer 9

epidemiology

Question 10

what does social epi. examine? what does it focus on?

Answer 10

• the social distribution of the SDOH
• it focuses on how a society’s social arrangements, past an present, produce differential exposures, leading to differences in health outcomes among different groups of people in the population

Question 11

what is the difference between social epi. and social sciences

Answer 11

the outcome variable

• sociology: the aim is to try to understand and explain the social system
• social epi: the impact of social exposures and systems on health
• (so basically one focuses on understanding the social systems and the other on how those systems affect health)