Exploring action on the social determinants of health in Canada’s health regions
The author of this Master’s thesis (produced for the School of Public Administration, University of Victoria) scanned Canadian health region websites to find references to health equity, and to identify interventions that address a social determinant of health. Eighty-nine health regions yielded 2,200 interventions. These were assessed using health equity and structural intervention lenses.
The author found that while 42% of the 89 health regions gave “equity” as a goal in the vision, mission and values section of their website, only 25% of the 2,200 interventions addressed equity. Most of the interventions that sought to address health equity were designed to target vulnerable groups or to reduce barriers to services.
Only 15% of the interventions could be classified as “structural,” meaning they targeted an entire population. Most commonly, these structural interventions addressed systematic barriers to accessing services, or they focused on building community capacity to promote wellness through an understanding of the social determinants.
The project was completed for the Canadian Population Health Initiative (CPHI), a division of the Canadian Institute for Health Information. A four-page summary is available on the CPHI website.
Use this resource to:
- Learn about innovative health region interventions that address the social determinants of health and health inequity
- Increase your understanding of structural interventions
- Identify gaps in your health service programming and evaluation
- Reflect on how to improve the evidence-base of social determinants of health interventions
MacNeil, A. (2012). Exploring Action on the Social Determinants of Health in Canada’s Health Regions (Master’s thesis). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1828/4409
Tags: Evaluation, Healthy public policy, Leadership & capacity building, Modify and orient interventions, Participate in policy development, Academic Institution, Report / Document