Social Determinants of Health Disparities

3 credits · School of Public Policy

This course uses a Social Determinants of Health (SoDH) framework to assess the genesis and reproduction of identity derived health inequities. The SoDH are the non-medical conditions and social contexts where folks are born, live, work and interact. The SoDH perspective holds that a wide range of policy processes produce health inequities. Almost all policy is health policy. Students will critically examine the various contexts and processes associated with producing them that influence differential health across diverse population groups. Among other phenomena, we will systematically examine identity construction processes, social stratification, marginalization, social as well as economic inequality, and the physical embodiment of differences in lived experience born of these processes.