Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Canadian Journal of Public Health = Revue Canadienne de Santé Publique logoLink to Canadian Journal of Public Health = Revue Canadienne de Santé Publique
editorial
. 2004 Sep 1;95(5):392–395. doi: 10.1007/BF03405154

Advancing the Population Health Agenda

Encouraging the Integration of Social Theory into Population Health Research and Practice

Katherine L Frohlich 116,✉, Eric Mykhalovskiy 216, Fiona Miller 316, Mark Daniel 416
PMCID: PMC6976014  PMID: 15490933

The content is available as a PDF (144.6 KB).

Footnotes

Acknowledgements: This research was made possible in part through a Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) Postdoctoral Fellowship (3765–2000–0054) held by K. Frohlich when the manuscript was first conceived, and through a CIHR-funded workshop entitled “Inserting social theory into population health: Challenges and opportunities” awarded to K. Frohlich which ran from Sept. 2002-Sept. 2003. F. Miller also has a Career Scientist Award from Ontario’s Health Research Personnel Development Program.

While we four authors are solely responsible for the written aspect of this manuscript, the ideas within reflect discussions held in December 2002 and April 2003 involving Patrick Chabot, James Dunn, Brian Finch, Sylvie Gendron, Mary Ellen Kelm, Melanie Rock, and Nancy Ross. We extend special thanks to Stéphanie Tailliez for her diligent organization of our meetings, to Lorna Weir and James Nazroo for their contributions to the second workshop, and to Blake Poland for thoughtful reactions to a draft of this manuscript.

References

  • 1.Daniel M, Green LW, Sheps SB. Paradigm change and uncertainty about funding of public health research: Social and scientific implication. J Health Soc Polic. 1998;10(2):39–56. doi: 10.1300/J045v10n02_04. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 2.Frohlich KL, Finch BK. Social theory and social epidemiology: Departing from risk-factor epidemiology. (Unpublished manuscript).
  • 3.Krieger N. Epidemiology and the web of causation: Has anyone seen the spide. Soc Sci Med. 1994;39(7):887–903. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(94)90202-X. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 4.Krieger N. Theories for social epidemiology in the 21st century: An ecosocial perspectiv. Int J Epidemiol. 2001;30:668–77. doi: 10.1093/ije/30.4.668. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 5.Krieger N, Zierler S. What explains the public’s health?–A call for epidemiologic theory. Epidemiology. 1995;7:107–9. doi: 10.1097/00001648-199601000-00020. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 6.Schwartz S, Susser E, Susser M. A future for epidemiology. Annu Rev Public Health. 1999;20:15–33. doi: 10.1146/annurev.publhealth.20.1.15. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 7.Wing S. Whose epidemiology, whose health. Int J Health Serv. 1998;28(2):241–52. doi: 10.2190/Y3GE-NQCK-0LNR-T126. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 8.Hyman I, Guruge S. A review of theory and health promotion strategies for new immigrant women. Can J Public Health. 2002;93(3):183–87. doi: 10.1007/BF03404997. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 9.Pickett W, Bains N. Staging of adult smokers according to the transtheoretical model of behavioural change: Analysis of an eastern Ontario cohor. Can J Public Healt. 1998;89(1):37–42. doi: 10.1007/BF03405793. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 10.Renaud L, Chevalier S, O’Loughlin J. L’institutionnalisation des programmes communautaires: revue des modèles théoriques et proposition d’un modèl. Can J Public Health. 1997;88(2):109–13. doi: 10.1007/BF03403872. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 11.Kawachi I, Kennedy BP, Lochner K, Prothrow-Stith D. Social capital, income inequality, and mortality. Am J Public Health. 1997;87:1491–98. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.87.9.1491. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 12.Navarro V. A critique of social capital. Int J Health Serv. 2002;32:423–32. doi: 10.2190/6U6R-LTVN-FHU6-KCNU. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 13.Putnam R. The strange disappearance of civic America. The American Prospec. 1996;24:34–47. [Google Scholar]
  • 14.Durkheim E. Suicide. A Study in Sociolog. Glencoe, IL: Free Press; 1951. [Google Scholar]
  • 15.Tocqueville A de. Democracy in America. Glasgow: Collins; 1959. [Google Scholar]
  • 16.Bourdieu P. The Logic of Practice. Cambridge: Polity Press; 1990. [Google Scholar]
  • 17.Turner B. Social capital, inequality and health: The Durkheimian revival. Social Theory and Healt. 2003;1:4–20. doi: 10.1057/palgrave.sth.8700001. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  • 18.Woolcock M. Social capital and economic development: Towards a theoretical synthesis and policy framewor. Theory and Society. 1998;27:151–208. doi: 10.1023/A:1006884930135. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  • 19.Portes A, Sensenbrenner J. Embeddedness and immigration: Notes on the social determinants of economic action. Am J Sociol. 1993;98:1320–50. doi: 10.1086/230191. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  • 20.Lynch J, Davey Smith G, Kaplan GA, House JS. Income inequality and mortality: Importance to health of individual income, psychosocial environment, or material condition. BM. 2000;320:1200–4. doi: 10.1136/bmj.320.7243.1200. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 21.Wilkinson RG. Unhealthy Societies: The Afflictions of Inequality. London, England: Routledge; 1996. [Google Scholar]
  • 22.Kawachi I, Kennedy BP. Income inequality and health: Pathways and mechanism. Health Serv Rev. 1999;34(1):215–27. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 23.Karlsen S, Nazroo J. Agency and structure: The impact of ethnic identity and racism on the health of ethnic minority people. Sociol Health Illnes. 2002;24(1):1–20. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.00001. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  • 24.Karlsen S, Nazroo J. Relation between racial discrimination, social class, and health among ethnic minority group. Am J Public Health. 2002;92:624–31. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.92.4.624. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 25.Nazroo J. Genetic, cultural or socio-economic vulnerability? Explaining ethnic inequalities in health. Sociol Health Illnes. 1998;20:710–30. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.00126. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  • 26.Nazroo J. The structuring of ethnic inequalities in health: Economic position, racial discrimination, and racis. Am J Public Health. 2003;93(2):277–85. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.93.2.277. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 27.Popay J, Thomas C, Williams G, Bennett S, Gatrell A, Bostock L. A proper place to live: Health inequalities, agency and the normative dimensions of space. Soc Sci Met. 2003;57:55–69. doi: 10.1016/s0277-9536(02)00299-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 28.Coburn D, Denny K, Mykhalovskiy E, McDonough P, Robertson A, Love R. Population health in Canada: A brief critique. Am J Public Health. 2003;93(3):392–96. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.93.3.392. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 29.Poland B, Coburn D, Robertson A, Eakin J. Wealth, equity and health care: A critique of a “population health” perspective on the determinants of healt. Soc Sci Med. 1998;46:785–98. doi: 10.1016/S0277-9536(97)00197-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 30.Evans RG, Barer ML, Marmor TR. Why Are Some People Healthy and Others Not? The Determinants of Health of Population. New York, NY: Aldine de Gruyter, Inc.; 1994. [Google Scholar]
  • 31.Evans RG, Stoddart GL. Producing health, consuming health care. Soc Sci Med. 1990;31:1347–63. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(90)90074-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Canadian Journal of Public Health = Revue Canadienne de Santé Publique are provided here courtesy of Springer

RESOURCES