title: US opinions on health determinants and social policy as health policy.
abstract: To examine what factors the public thinks are important determinants of health and whether social policy is viewed as health policy, we conducted a national telephone survey of 2791 US adults from November 2008 through February 2009. Respondents said that health behaviors and access to health care have very strong effects on health; they were less likely to report a very strong role for other social and economic factors. Respondents who recognized a stronger role for social determinants of health and who saw social policy as health policy were more likely to be older, women, non-White, and liberal, and to have less education, lower income, and fair/poor health. Increasing public knowledge about social determinants of health and mobilizing less advantaged groups may be useful in addressing broad determinants of health.
authors.affiliation: School of Social Work, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 53706, USA. sarobert@wisc.edu
authors.forename: Stephanie A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Robert
authors.forename: Bridget C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Booske
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006291:Health Policy; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011639:Public Opinion; D011640:Public Policy; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States