Determinants of Health

Topic: Determinants of Health
Outlines:
➢ Health is multidimensional
➢ Determinants of health
➢ Interaction with humans
➢ Effects on human health
➢ Conclusion
Determinants of Health
➢ health is multifactorial.
➢ health is affected by both internal and external factors.
➢ internal are inside the body genetic/ biological.
➢ external is outside the body means surrounding/society of an
individual.
➢ other factors are also included in health determinants:
➢ behavioral and socio-cultural and economic conditions,
environment and others.
➢ All these factors interacts with each other.
➢ They are responsible for promoting or deleterious of health.
➢ All or any of these can affect the health and leads his
susceptibility to illness.
Biological determinants
➢ the physical and mental traits of human being are determined by

the nature of his genes at the time of conception.
➢ The genetic make-up is unique in this sense that it can not be
altered after conception.
➢ A number of diseases are known to be genetic origin, e.g.
chromosomal anomalies, errors of metabolism, mental retardation
and some types of diabetes etc.
➢ Medical genetics offers hope for the prevention and treatment of
wide spectrum of diseases, thus the prospect of better medicine
and longer, healthier life.
➢ A positive health advocated by WHO implies that a person should
be able to express as possible the potentialities of his genetic
heritage.
Behavioral and socio-cultural conditions
➢ Term “lifestyle” denotes “the way people living”.

➢ composed of cultural and behavioral patterns and personal habits
(e.g. smoking, alcoholism) developed through socialization.
➢ Lifestyle is learnt through social interaction with parents, peer
groups, friends, siblings.
➢ Many current-day health problems such as coronary heart diseases,
obesity, lung cancer, drug addiction are associated with lifestyle
changes.
➢ In many developing countries, risks of illness and death are
connected with the lack of sanitation, poor nutrition, personal
hygiene, habits, customs.
➢ There are many factors that can actually promotes health, like
adequate nutrition, enough sleep, sufficient physical activities etc.
Environment
➢ Hippocrates firstly related diseases to environment, e.g., climate, water,
air etc.
➢ Environment is classified as internal and external.
➢ Internal environment consists of every organ, cell, tissue, organ system
and their functioning with system.
➢ External environment is defined as “all that which is external to the
human individual host”.
➢ External environment is divided into physical, biological and
psychological components.
➢ Any or all of these can affect the human health and can leads man to the
susceptibility of illness.
➢ Some epidemiologists used term “micro environment” or domestic
environment or personal environment for lifestyle of an individual.
Socio-economic conditions
➢ Health also relates with of socio-economic conditions.

➢ (1) Economic status: is a major factor in reducing the morbidity, mortality,
increase in life expectancy and improving the quality of life.
➢ Affluence may also be a cause of illness as coronary heart diseases,
diabetes, obesity.
➢ (2) Education: A second major influencing status of health is education

(especially female education).
➢ The rate of illiteracy closely coincides with poverty, malnutrition, ill heath,
child mortality rate.
➢ (3) occupation: un employment causes high incidence of ill health and
death.
➢ For many, loss of work mean loss of income and status.
➢ It can cause psychological and social damage.
continue…
➢ (3) political system: health is closely related to country’s political
system.
➢ Often the main obstacles of implementation of health technologies
are not technical, but rather political.
➢ Decisions concerning resource allocation, manpower policy, choice
of technology and degrees are examples of manner in which the
political system can shape community health services.
➢ WHO has set the target of at least 5% expenditure of each
country’s GNP on health care system.
Health services
➢ Health services cover a wide spectrum of personal and community
services for treatment of disease, prevention of illness and
promotion of health.
➢ The purpose of health services is to improve the health status of
population.
➢ For example the immunization of children can influence the
prevalence of particular disease.
➢ Health services are seen as essential for social and economic
development.
➢ The most we can expect from health services is, good care.
Ageing of the population
➢ By the year 2020, the world will have more than one billion people aged and
60 over.
➢ more than two-thirds of them living in developing countries.
➢ A major concern of rapid population ageing is the increased prevalence of
chronic diseases and disabilities.
➢ Both being conditions that tend to accompany the ageing process and
deserve special attention.
Gender
➢ The 1990s have witnessed an increased concentration on women’s issues .

➢ In 1993 ,the Global commission on women’s health was established.
➢ The commission drew up an agenda for action on women’s health covering
nutrition , reproductive health, the health consequences of violence, ageing
, lifestyle related conditions and the occupational environment.
➢ It has brought about an increased awareness among policy-makers of
women’s health issues and encourages their inclusion in all development
plans as a priority.
Other Factors
➢ The revolution in information and communication technology offers

tremendous opportunities in providing an easy and instant access to medical
information once difficult to retrieve.
➢ It contributes to dissemination of information worldwide, serving the needs
of many physicians , health professionals , biomedical scientists and
researchers , the mass media and the public.
➢ Other contributions to the health of population derive from systems outside
the formal health care system.
➢ Examples are food and agriculture, education, industry, social welfare, rural
development.
Conclusion
➢ Health is multifactorial.
➢ Many factors are involved in causing health problems.
➢ There are factors which actually promotes health.
➢ The factors are usually both genetic and environmental;
combination of many genes form both parents, in addition to
unknown environmental factors, produces health problems.
➢ Other factors like, gender social status, education, employment,
political system also effects the health.
Reference:
Park’s book of preventive and social medicine
Google
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Topic: Determinants of Health

➢ the physical and mental traits of human being are determined by

➢ Term “lifestyle” denotes “the way people living”.

➢ Health also relates with of socio-economic conditions.

➢ (2) Education: A second major influencing status of health is education

➢ The 1990s have witnessed an increased concentration on women’s issues .

➢ The revolution in information and communication technology offers

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