Fast Facts: The Social Determinants of Health in Manitoba

May 17, 2010 The Social Determinants of Health in Manitoba What we know about health inequity in Manitoba and what we can do about it Why are some people, and more (OECD), the Canadian Senate Subcommittee on particularly some groupings of Population Health, the Canadian Public Health people, healthier than others? A Association and the Public Health Agency of large part of the answer depends on a. [...] The problem variables that have little to do with life-style choices is not that governments do not know the value like smoking, diet, and exercise, and nothing at of an SDOH approach; the problem is that our all to do with the bio-medical approach to health governments have been unwilling to act on the — medicines, hospitals, forms of surgery, and so knowledge, other than in small, incremental on. [...] approaches to the allocation of society’s resources have the worst health outcomes; those countries Remarkably, the evidence in support of an in which governments redistribute resources to SDOH approach to improving our health is promote a greater degree of equality, with policies overwhelming, and it is accepted as valid by leading that support families, gender equality, and labour, health care a. [...] Although the inequality of income is not as bad The inequality that produces such negative health in Manitoba as in Canada as a whole, it has been outcomes also makes some groups wealthy and worsening since the late 1970s, with the poorest powerful, and they are likely to be resistant to 40 percent of Manitobans earning less in the changes in the direction of an SDOH agenda. [...] That is, the poor experience poorer health than those in The collection of policy papers that form the mid-income ranges, but those in mid-income The Social Determinants of Health in Manitoba make ranges experience poorer health than those in the it clear beyond doubt that our collective health highest income ranges.