Skip to main content
PMC home page
Canadian Journal of Public Health = Revue Canadienne de Santé Publique logoLink to Canadian Journal of Public Health = Revue Canadienne de Santé Publique
. 1999 Nov 1;90(Suppl 1):S7–S10. doi: 10.1007/BF03403570

Toward a Lexicon of Population Health

James R Dunn 11,✉, Michael V Hayes 21
PMCID: PMC6979857  PMID: 10686751

Abstract

Despite its undeniable currency in research and policy circles, there remains considerable confusion about what ‘population health’ is. We propose a lexicon for population health in the hope of clarifying issues and advancing this important research emphasis and policy agenda. It distinguishes population health in its literal meaning from a population health perspective, population health research, a population health framework, and a population health approach to policy. Population health is more than just thinking in aggregate terms or about identifying vulnerable or at-risk subpopulations. A population health perspective is fundamentally concerned with the social nature of health influences. The social structures that shape health experiences transcend the characteristics or actions of any one individual, providing population health with analytic advantages over individualistic-oriented approaches to health and to health policy.

References

  • 1.Frankish J, Veenstra G, Moulton G. Population Health in Canada: A Working Paper. Prepared for the National Conference on Shared Responsibility for Health and Social Impact Assessments by The Institute of Health Promotion Research. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia; 1999. [Google Scholar]
  • 2.Health Canada. Press release by the Federal, Provincial and Territorial Advisory Committee on Population Health. 1997. [Google Scholar]
  • 3.Green LW. Refocusing health care systems to address both individual care and population health. Clin Invest Med. 1994;17(2):133–41. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 4.Saunders LD, Wanke MI, Noseworthy TW, Shores SJ. Identification and Assessment of the Current Status of Population Health Research in Canada and Identified Countries; 1996. [Google Scholar]
  • 5.Dean K, editor. Population Health Research: Linking Theory and Methods. London: Sage Publications; 1994. [Google Scholar]
  • 6.Anonymous. Population health looking upstream. Lancet. 1993;343(8895):429–30. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 7.Hayes MV, Foster LT, Foster HD. The Determinants of Population Health: A Critical Assessment. Victoria: University of Victoria; 1994. [Google Scholar]
  • 8.Labonte R. Population health and health promotion: What do they have to say to each other? Can J Public Health. 1995;86(3):165–68. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 9.Coburn D, Poland B, Eakin J, et al. The CIAR vision of the determinants of health: A critique. Can J Public Health. 1996;87(5):308–10. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 10.Poland B, Coburn D, Eakin J, et al. Wealth, equity and health care: A critique of a ‘population health’ perspective on the determinants of health. Soc Sci Med. 1998;46(7):785–98. doi: 10.1016/S0277-9536(97)00197-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 11.Love R, Jackson L, Edwards R, Pederson A. Gender and its Relationship with Other Determinants of Health; 1997. [Google Scholar]
  • 12.Evans RG, Stoddart GL. Producing health, consuming health care. Soc Sci Med. 1990;31(12):1347–63. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(90)90074-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 13.Evans RG, Barer ML, Marmor TR, editors. Why Are Some People Healthy and Others Not? New York: Aldine De Gruyter; 1994. [Google Scholar]
  • 14.Dædalus, Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1994;123(4). Theme issue: ‘Health and Wealth’.
  • 15.Amick BC, Levine S, Tarlov AR, Walsh DC, editors. Society and Health. New York: Oxford University Press; 1995. [Google Scholar]
  • 16.Blane D, Brunner E, Wilkinson R, editors. Health and Social Organization. London: Routledge; 1996. [Google Scholar]
  • 17.Wilkinson RG. Unhealthy Societies: The Afflictions of Inequality. New York: Routledge; 1996. [Google Scholar]
  • 18.Egolf B, Lasker J, Wolf S, Potvin L. The Roseto effect: A 50-year comparison of mortality rates. Am J Public Health. 1992;82(8):1089–92. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.82.8.1089. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 19.Lasker JN, Egolf BP, Wolf S. Community social change and mortality. Soc Sci Med. 1994;39(1):53–62. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(94)90165-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 20.Wolf S, Bruhn JG. The Power of Clan: The Influence of Human Relationships on Heart Disease. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers; 1993. [Google Scholar]
  • 21.Duncan C, Jones K, Moon G. Smoking and deprivation: Are there neighbourhood effects? Soc Sci Med. 1999;48(4):497–505. doi: 10.1016/S0277-9536(98)00360-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 22.Anderson RT, Sorlie P, Backlund E, et al. Mortality effects of community socioeconomic status. Epidemiology. 1996;8:42–47. doi: 10.1097/00001648-199701000-00007. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 23.Brooks-Gunn J, Duncan GJ, Aber JL. Neighborhood Poverty: Context and Consequences For Children. New York: Russell Sage Foundatio; 1998. [Google Scholar]
  • 24.Diez-Roux AV, Nieto FJ, Muntaner C, et al. Neighborhood environments and coronary heart disease: A multilevel analysis. Am J Epidemiol. 1997;146(1):48–63. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a009191. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 25.Duncan C, Jones K. Individuals and their ecologies: Analysing the geography of chronic illness within a multi-level modeling framework. Health and Place. 1995;1(1):27–40. doi: 10.1016/1353-8292(95)90029-2. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  • 26.Haynes R, Bentham G, Lovett A, Eimermann J. Effect of labour market conditions on reporting of limiting long term illness and permanent sickness in England and Wales. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1997;51:283–88. doi: 10.1136/jech.51.3.283. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 27.Kennedy BP, Kawachi I, Glass R, Prothrow-Stith D. Income distribution, socioeconomic status, and self-rated health in the United States: Multilevel analysis. Br Med J. 1998;317:917–21. doi: 10.1136/bmj.317.7163.917. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 28.Lynch JW, Kaplan GA, Pamuk E, et al. Income inequality and mortality in metropolitan areas of the United States. Am J Public Health. 1998;88(7):1074–80. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.88.7.1074. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 29.Kaplan GA. People and places: Contrasting perspectives on the association between social class and health. Int J Health Services. 1996;26(3):507–19. doi: 10.2190/4CUU-7B3G-G4XR-0K0B. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 30.Phillimore P, Morris D. Discrepant legacies: Premature mortality in two industrial towns. Soc Sci Med. 1991;33(2):139–52. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(91)90174-B. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 31.Waitzman NJ, Smith KR. Separate but lethal: The effects of economic segregation on mortality in metropolitan America. The Milbank Quarterly. 1998;76(3):341–73. doi: 10.1111/1468-0009.00095. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 32.Wilkinson RG. The epidemiological transition: From material scarcity to social disadvantage? Dædalus. 1994;123(4):61–78. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 33.Yen IH, Kaplan G. Poverty area residence and changes in depression and perceived health status: Evidence from the Alameda County Study. Int J Epidemiol. 1999;28:90–94. doi: 10.1093/ije/28.1.90. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 34.Sayer A. Method in Social Science: A Realist Approach. 2nd. London: Routledge; 1992. [Google Scholar]
  • 35.Lynch J, Kaplan G. Understanding how inequality in the distribution of income affects health. J Health Psych. 1997;2(3):297–314. doi: 10.1177/135910539700200303. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 36.Macintyre S. The Black Report and beyond: What are the issues? Soc Sci Med. 1997;44(6):723–45. doi: 10.1016/S0277-9536(96)00183-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 37.Muntaner C, Lynch JW. Income inequality and social cohesion versus class relations: A critique of Wilkinson’s neo-Durkheimian research program. Int J Health Services. 1998;29:59–81. doi: 10.2190/G8QW-TT09-67PL-QTNC. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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

RESOURCES