More than genetic influences or access to health care, social determinants can influence health results, that is, they depend on living conditions and levels of discrimination
Poor health often results from inequalities in the level of housing and education, marks a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) released on Tuesday, which calls for investment in social infrastructure and universal public services.
The “World Report on the Social Determinants of Health Equity” shows that inequality at the level of those and other factors can lead to “a drastic reduction in healthy life hope – sometimes in decades – both in high -income countries and low incomes.”
“For example, people in the country with the lowest life expectancy will live, on average, less than 33 years than those born in the country with the highest life expectancy.”
“Our world is unequal. The place where we are born, grow, we live, work, and aging significantly influences our health and well-being,” says WHO Director General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, quoted in a study dissemination statement.
“But a change for the better is possible. This world report shows the importance of addressing interconnected social determinants and provides political strategies and recommendations based on experience to help countries improve health results for all,” he adds.
More than genetic influences or access to health care, social determinants can influence health results, that is, they depend on living conditions and levels of discrimination.
As a rule, the more needy the area where people live, the lower their income and the level of education, worse their health and will have less years of healthy life, aggravating inequalities in the case of populations facing discrimination and marginalization.
“One of the clear examples is that indigenous peoples have a lower life expectancy than non -indigenous peoples, both in countries of high performance and low performance.”
Therefore, WHO calls for governments, academics, civil society and private sector to combat economic inequality and invest in social infrastructures and universal public services, and try to solve issues such as “structural discrimination and social determinants and the impacts of conflicts, emergency situations and forced migrations”.
The report released today is the first of this type since 2008, when the WHO commission on social health determinants set goals to 2040 to reduce differences between countries and internally in terms of life expectancy, infant and maternal mortality, and shows that those goals “will probably not be achieved” that progress has been insufficient.
According to the United Nations Health Agency, inequalities at this level within countries have increased in many cases and data indicate that children born in poorer countries are 13 times more likely to die before five years than those born in richest countries.
Studies show that “1.8 million children could be saved annually with dial reduction and increased equity between the poorest and richest sectors of the population of medium and low performance countries.”
The WHO also draws attention to the fact that it is calculated that, due to climate change, for example, the number of those living in extreme poverty increases between 68 and 135 million over the next five years, also noting that the high debt levels in certain countries have impaired the capacity of governments to invest in social infrastructure and health.
The total amount of interest payments made by the world’s 75 poorest countries quadrupled in the last decade, he said.
The organization also appeals to good management of the challenges and opportunities of climate action and digital transformation to systematically promote health equity.
For the authors of the report, “equity is a political choice” and “health equity is at the center of sustainable development”.
