Linda Axtell-Thompson, instructor of Health Care Administration at the University of Hawai‘i–West O‘ahu, recently published a new edition of the book, “The Social Determinants of Health: Looking Upstream, 2nd Edition.”
Axtell-Thompson co-authored “The Social Determinants of Health” with Kathryn Strother Ratcliff, professor emerita of Sociology at the University of Connecticut. The book was published this month by Polity, an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities. (Ratcliff authored the first edition, published in 2017.)
“The new edition of this popular introduction takes seriously the idea that health outcomes can be fully understood only by investigating the role the social world plays in our health,” according to a description of the book by Polity.
According to Polity, Ratcliff and Axtell-Thompson put into practice the “upstream” imagery championed by public health experts, locating the causes of health problems — and their solutions — within the social environment. Each chapter explains how the shape of social institutions, the unequal realities of community life, and the politics behind corporate and governmental decisions produce and perpetuate unhealthy living and working conditions. The new edition links more strongly to existing U.S. and international policy frameworks on the determinants of health and pays greater attention to socioeconomic factors, education, climate change, and neighborhood disparities.
The description continued, “Arguing that none of us should be placed in health-threatening situations that could be prevented, this provocative analysis uses social justice and human rights lenses to guide public discussion toward changes that can produce a healthier world for us all. It will continue to be invaluable to professionals and students in sociology, public health, and other fields related to health.”
In a book review by Professor Sir Michael Marmot, former Chair of the World Health Organization’s Commission on Social Determinants of Health, Marmot said, “What we breathe in, eat, and drink; where we work and live; how we travel — each, done badly, can damage health. The second edition of ‘The Social Determinants of Health’ takes us on a wonderfully informative journey to examine the governmental and industrial causes of exposures that determine health.”
“The Social Determinants of Health: Looking Upstream, 2nd Edition” is available via Amazon.