Open AccessTrends in U.S. Population Health: The Central Role of Policies, Politics, and Profits
Author(s) -
Jennifer Karas Montez,
Mark D. Hayward,
Anna Zajacova
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of health and social behavior/journal of health and social behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.649
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 2150-6000
pISSN - 0022-1465
DOI - 10.1177/00221465211015411
Subject(s) - social determinants of health , politics , health equity , inequality , health policy , population health , public health , health indicator , political science , population , regional science , sociology , economic growth , health care , medicine , economics , demography , mathematical analysis , mathematics , nursing , law
Recent trends in U.S. health have been mixed, with improvements among some groups and geographic areas alongside declines among others. Medical sociologists have contributed to the understanding of those disparate trends, although important questions remain. In this article, we review trends since the 1980s in key indicators of U.S. health and weigh evidence from the last decade on their causes. To better understand contemporary trends in health, we propose that commonly used conceptual frameworks, such as social determinants of health, should be strengthened by prominently incorporating commercial, political-economic, and legal determinants. We illustrate how these structural determinants can provide new insights into health trends, using disparate health trajectories across U.S. states as an example. We conclude with suggestions for future research: focusing on structural causes of health trends and inequalities, expanding interdisciplinary perspectives, and integrating methods better equipped to handle the complexity of causal processes driving health trends and inequalities.