ABSTRACT
The social context of health may be defined as the entire set of relationships that exist among people and among the groups to which people belong. There are two related but quite different approaches to the study of the impact of social environments on health. The first uses statistical and epidemiological techniques to correlate such factors as education, race, economic status, age, and occupation with the incidence of illness and injury. The second, a more broadly cultural approach to the relationship between social environment and health, considers the influence of “softer” factors on health and illness. The analysis of social determinants of health rests on the simple observation that some groups of people are healthier than other groups. From studying these various groups and comparing them, a set of social, economic, and demographic characteristics can be derived that correlates strongly with either the absence of certain diseases or with higher mortality or morbidity.
