GCPH Seminar Series 17: Lecture 3 - Social justice and health equity

In this seminar, Prof Sir Marmot provided timely and important insights and learning from his vast experience and career, and offer his thoughts on emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic and building back fairer. Taking action to reduce health inequalities is a matter of social justice. In developing strategies for tackling health inequalities, we need to confront the social gradient in health, not just the difference between the worst off and everybody else. There is clear evidence when we look across countries that national policies make a difference and that much can be done in cities, towns and local areas. But policies and interventions must not be confined to the health care system; they need to address the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age. The evidence shows that economic circumstances are important but are not the only drivers of health inequalities. Tackling the health gap will take action, based on sound evidence, across the whole of society

Young women and their reproductive health needs in a family practice setting: factors influencing care seeking in Vitoria, Brazil

Background. Young women often have diverse options for addressing their reproductive health and other health needs in urban settings. In Brazil, they may access care through the government-run Family Health Program (FHP). Understanding factors associated with service utilization can enhance access to and delivery of appropriate services

Teaching About Health Disparities Using a Social Determinants Framework

The intersection of two trends in health intervention has the potential to fundamentally change the practice of medicine. First, research into the social determinants of health is revealing the mechanisms by which living conditions cause disease. Second, the restructuring of primary care around preventive interventions represents the convergence point of medicine and public health. These trends have profound implications for medical education. Whereas traditional educational paradigms favor a “bottom-up” approach to disease—focusing on molecular origins or organ systems—new paradigms must emphasize the entire causal chain of ill health to facilitate the understanding of novel interventions available to tomorrow’s clinician