ABSTRACT
Research over several decades has identified social inequalities in health, both betw een and within countries.1-3 This research has prom pted some countries to pursue strategies to reduce socioeconomic inequalities in health ,4-7 although these initiatives have not been w ithout controversy.8-11 Such efforts have fuelled the debate over the relative contributions of health determ inants and how to weight and direct public policies that affect hea lth .12-17 The debate centres on the tension between the need to account for the impact of health determ inants outside the healthcare system (social determ inants of health) and the need to balance health as an objective w ith other valuable social ends (in other policy domains).
