Overcoming barriers to improved research on the social determinants of health.
This paper examines the recommendations of the World Health Organization's Commission on the Social Determinants of Health regarding the need for improved research on determinants of health inequity and discusses the following barriers to implementation of those recommendations: the power of the biomedical imagination in health and medical research; emphasis on vertical health programming; ideological biases outweighing evidence in policy decisions; and academic reward systems, including the inherent conservatism of peer review. The paper concludes with suggestions for changing research funding and assessment systems to overcome these barriers.
Baum
Fran
F
Southgate Institute for Health Society and Equity, South Australian Community Health Research Unit, Flinders University, South Australia. fran.baum@flinders.edu.au
D026683:Advisory Committees; D006291:Health Policy; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000592:standards*; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D011050:Policy Making; D011786:Quality Control; D012931:Social Environment; D014944:World Health Organization