Chapter 8 – Individual Characteristics and their Influence upon Health
This chapter explores critically a range of individual characteristics that influence health. Some of the topics covered include foetal programming, the influence of age, the influence of biological sex and gender and the influence of personality. The range of subject matter means that it will be of general interest to students on a variety of different health-related courses. This chapter can be read alongside Chapter 6, which focuses on behaviour at an individual level. It may be of particular interest to students studying for a range of health professions that consider individual differences and development across the lifespan.
Chapter 9 – Social and Community Characteristics and their Influence upon Health
This chapter explores how social and community networks act as determinants of health. Two major concepts, social support and social capital, are defined and debated and evidence presented of their relationship to health status. The proposed mechanisms of how social support and social capital influence health are explained. In the final section the implications for policy-makers and practitioners of social and community network influences upon health are considered. This chapter is useful for all those studying public health, health promotion and health studies, as social capital is increasingly cited as an important health determinant and is used within contemporary policy. The chapter will also be of interest to those working with communities in any context, such as community development workers and community nurses.
Chapter 10 – The Physical Environment and its Influence upon Health
This chapter considers a range of factors within our physical environments that impact on health. These include all of the factors that appear in Dahlgren and Whitehead’s framework, namely agriculture and food production, education, working environments, water and sanitation, and housing. Each factor is considered in critical depth, drawing on recent research findings and debate. This chapter may be of particular interest to students of environmental health; however, it will also have relevance to a wide variety of health-related courses.
Chapter 11 – Policy Influences upon Health
Social policy permeates all areas of society and is the subject of everyday discussion and daily experiences. It is also controversial and often debated; hence this chapter is essential reading for anyone who is studying health because social policy is fundamentally about who is entitled to support from the state in terms of both health and welfare and the kinds of support that can and should be provided. The chapter explores what social policy is, how it is made, the ideological basis of policy and offers an insight into how many policy sectors have an impact upon health. The chapter draws specifically upon UK health policy and so is a useful resource for practitioners, nurses and students of health studies as a general introduction to the area.
Chapter 12 – The Global Context of Health
Dahlgren and Whitehead’s framework does not make reference to the importance of the global context of health but, given the way in which the world is more closely connected through the processes associated with globalization, it is essential to understand how the global context influences and determines health outcomes. Globalization is a key determinant of health. This chapter uses the concept of globalization specifically to explore health within the global context, examining global health patterns, inequalities, health care and governance, including the Sustainable Development Goals. Given that health is global in so many respects, as this chapter demonstrates, this is an essential read for everyone studying health or working in a health profession.
Chapter 13 – Synthesizing Perspectives: Case Studies for Action
Chapter 13 brings everything that has been discussed in previous chapters together. It provides three detailed case studies, which consider much of the content of the book in relation to specific and contemporary public-health challenges. The individual case studies are about malaria, cervical cancer, neighbourhoods and strategies to tackle COVID-19. Each case study introduces the issue in depth and then considers ways in which health might be promoted in relation to it. The chapter then considers Dahlgren and Whitehead’s determinants of health rainbow framework critically and in some depth, examining its strengths and how it might be improved upon. This chapter will be useful to those working in the public-health field because it demonstrates the application of different schools of knowledge to specific health problems. Consequently, readers gain practice-related insights here, as well as the ability to build upon the theoretical understandings provided across the earlier chapters.
Introduction
The overall aim of this volume is to enable the reader to examine how health is conceptualized in various ways and how it is understood from a variety of disciplinary perspectives (terms in bold appear in the Glossary at the end of the book). Health studies is a distinct discipline in its own right, which attempts to explore all of the factors that can and do influence health, while examining the very meaning of health itself, which is the starting point for this book in chapter 1. As the scope of health studies is extremely large, this book will enable the reader to focus upon the central tenets of health studies by exploring the human experience of health across several contexts; for example, community in chapter 9, the environment in chapter 10, the policy context in chapter 11 and the global context in chapter 12. The book also discusses critically and analyses the many factors that are influential in relation to health, such as the contemporary threats to health that are considered in chapter 2 and the individual characteristics considered in chapter 8. Indeed, as there are many diverse discourses that surround health, these are illustrated in detailed case studies throughout the chapters. Health studies is also interdisciplinary in its nature and so draws upon many different disciplines, including sociology (chapter 4), anthropology, (chapter 5), psychology (chapter 6) and health promotion (chapter 7). Through the examination of different disciplines and influences, health is shown to be overwhelmingly socially influenced, and is situated within a multi-disciplinary critical framework. The key strength of health studies as a discipline is its ability to synergise understandings and influences from a variety of fields, as chapter 13 clearly demonstrates. Indeed, another key aspect of the discipline of health studies is the scope of analysis that can be achieved across a variety of fields, aided by the examination of evidence and research findings, which are discussed in detail in chapter 3. Through easy to navigate interactive chapters this book also enables the reader to develop and enhance subject specific skills, such as the ability to compare health contexts and