title: The implications of fundamental cause theory for priority setting.
abstract: Application of fundamental cause theory to Powers and Faden's model of social justice highlights the ethical superiority of upstream public health interventions. In this article, I assess the ramifications of fundamental cause theory specifically in context of public health priority setting. Ethically optimal public health policy simultaneously maximizes overall population health and compresses health inequalities. The fundamental cause theory is an important framework in helping to identify which categories of public health interventions are most likely to advance these twin goals.
authors.affiliation: Daniel S. Goldberg is with the Department of Bioethics and Interdisciplinary Studies, The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, Greenville, NC.
authors.forename: Daniel S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Goldberg
mesh_terms: D006291:Health Policy; D006292:Health Priorities / Q000941:ethics*; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D011634:Public Health / Q000941:ethics*; D064890:Social Determinants of Health; D012935:Social Justice; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors