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Determinants of Health and Ill-Health

The population health perspective; income and wealth; early determinants of lifetime health (genetics, parenting, schooling, peer effects); aging; occupational and workplace health and safety; addiction: tobacco, alcohol, drugs; the environment: air/water pollution, carcigens, other chemicals, allergens, radi- ation, etc.; economic and social inequality as a determinant of ill-health; epidemics: AIDS, obesity, malaria; prevention, primary and secondary; chronic diseases; infectious diseases; social capital, cultural factors.

Health economics and behaviour change: a workshop

Authors of a paper entitled What can health psychologists learn from health economics: from monetary incentives to policy programmes note that they …believe that health psychologists would benefit from greater familiarisation with the methodologies, theories, and tools of economics”. I… Read More »Health economics and behaviour change: a workshop

Does political reform really reduce child mortality?

Measuring causal effects is a tricky business. But, it’s necessary if we want to appropriately design effective policies and interventions. Many things are not amenable to manipulation in an experiment and so we rely upon a toolbox of statistical tools… Read More »Does political reform really reduce child mortality?

Economic conditions and the health of babies. You won’t believe what the literature says!

  How do economic conditions affect a person’s health? We can think of three major mechanisms that researchers examine. Firstly, the absolute effect of wealth or income that affects your access to health-influencing goods and services such as healthcare, good… Read More »Economic conditions and the health of babies. You won’t believe what the literature says!

How do you solve a problem like obesity?

Making headlines this morning (Thursday 20th November) has been the report by McKinsey Global Institute, an offshoot of the management consultancy McKinsey, on the global economic impact of obesity. This report estimates that $2.0 trillion is spent annually worldwide as a… Read More »How do you solve a problem like obesity?

Marginalism, reductionism, realism

There is a large literature documenting the socioeconomic gradient in health. Whether it be measured by education, income or some other metric, individuals of a lower socioeconomic status have worse health. Understanding and explaining this gradient is of great importance… Read More »Marginalism, reductionism, realism

Is this recession good for your health?

There have been a good number of articles to document the phenomenon of a counter-cyclical relationship between unemployment and health. As unemployment rises, deaths from a number of causes have been found to decline. These include accidents, infant mortality, heart… Read More »Is this recession good for your health?