Global Health Otherwise shared on LinkedIn:
“Health depends on far more than hospitals and medicine.
Where people live, how much they earn, and how much power they hold shape their health more than clinical care does.
This idea, known as the social determinants of health, has guided global health policy for almost twenty years, ever since a landmark 2008 WHO commission popularized it.
Berenson and colleagues (2026) revisit this idea in a review article, not an original study, published in the International Journal for Equity in Health. They find that despite mountains of research proving these determinants matter, health gaps within countries keep widening.
Most studies describe problems well but rarely test real solutions, favor epidemiology over policy and implementation research, and treat communities and policymakers as subjects rather than partners.
Structural forces like racism and political power stay in the background instead of becoming the focus.
The authors call for research that prioritizes solutions, embraces diverse methods and voices, and links directly to policy cycles. They also urge funding and incentive reforms so evidence can better translate into real action.
A review argues social determinants research has not reduced health inequities, and urges more solution-focused, participatory, multidisciplinary research that links evidence directly to policy cycles and political opportunity for change.”
Title: From knowledge accumulation to transformative action: research to catalyze progress on social determinants of health equity
Authors: Julia Berenson, Robert Marten, Wenhui Mao, Debashis Basu, Monika Kosinska, Andrew Cassels, Gavin Yamey, Kumanan Rasanathan.
Read The Full Article.