Synergy for health equity: integrating health promotion and social determinants of health approaches in and beyond the Americas

• Main Authors: Suzanne F. Jackson, Anne-Emanuelle Birn, Stephen B. Fawcett, Blake Poland, Jerry A. Schultz
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Spanish; Portuguese
• Published: Pan American Health Organization 2013
• Subjects: promoción de la salud; desigualdades en la salud; directrices para la planificación en salud; vulnerabilidad en salud; política social; salud urbana; Américas; Medicine; R; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Arctic; Canada
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/bac27031dc044bb28d82742a7d8e7839

Health promotion and social determinants of health approaches, when integrated, can better contribute to understanding and addressing health inequities. Yet, they have typically been pursued as two solitudes. This paper presents the key elements, principles, actions, and potential synergies of these complementary frameworks for addressing health equity. The value-added of integrating these two approaches is illustrated by three examples drawn from the authors' experiences in the Americas: at the community level, through a community-based coalition for reducing chronic disease disparities among minorities in an urban center in the United States; at the national level, through healthy-settings interventions in Canada; and at the Regional level, through health cooperation based on social justice values in Latin America. Challenges to integrating health promotion and social determinants of health approaches in the Americas are also discussed.