Health Exchange

Where we live, where we work, our education, our early childhood, our social power, our access to land and water: all these social determinants and many more, affect our health. This issue of Health Exchange focuses on the social determinants of health, what they mean for health workers and how we put this approach into practice. There are articles from a range of perspectives: the role of government in Sri Lanka, an NGO working at the grassroots in Kenya, an indigenous person’s view of holistic health in Nicaragua, early childhood development projects in Brazil, and community action in Sri Lanka. There is also an article discussing the work of the World Health Organization’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, which has spearheaded efforts to bring the approach to the forefront. Another contributor shares experience from a housing project in India’s urban slums.
We have added a new section to this edition of Health Exchange – Innovations in Health Research – which focuses on innovative research with practical applications to help solve some of the world’s most pressing health problems.

There are nine articles in the print edition of Health Exchange but we have more online. Additional articles in the online version include early childhood development in Chile, the process of community led total sanitation, and a longer version of Rene Loewenson’s article on social empowerment as a determinant of health. There is a report from the World Health Assembly in Geneva on the recently passed resolution on social determinants of health and podcast interviews with Abdul Sattar Yoosuf and Kumanan Rasanathan, both of the World Health Organization.

Health Exchange online is interactive so please feel free to add your comments and feedback.

We also keep adding new material to the online version; both to the current topic and to previous topics; for example, there are brand new articles about women and health. If you would like to contribute an article to any of the topics we cover please get in touch. The next issue, in Autumn 2009, will be about health workers and the health work force.
Contact us: healthexchange@healthlink.org.uk

Subscribe to Health Exchange
Health Exchange is free online and in print, but we’d like to encourage you to subscribe on a voluntary basis to help us disseminate printed issues to health workers in the South. A yearly subscription of £25 will mean 10 people in the South can receive Health Exchange for free, £50 will mean 20 people can receive it, and £100 will mean 50 people can read the magazine regularly.

Please help us to disseminate Health Exchange to people who have limited access to reading material and information.
To subscribe, please make a cheque payable to Healthlink Worldwide and send it to:  Health Exchange Subscription, Healthlink Worldwide, 56-64 Leonard Street, London, EC2A 4LT, UK

For more information please email: healthexchange@healthlink.org.uk

If you would like bulk orders of printed copies, please get in touch and tell us who the key audience is for the publication.

We also welcome any translations of articles.

Filed under: social determinants of health