Social Determinants of Health and Health Equity

Social determinants of health trace the differences in health and well-being to the social factors that lie beyond the health systems. The social factors are related to the various conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age. These factors are not limited to the proximate determinants of health but also incorporate the intermediate and structural root (causes of the causes) determinants of health. Structural and social factors that drive health disparities, if avoidable, are inequitable and unfair. Recent research in the Arab region revealed that large health disparities by gender, poverty level, education, and place of residence. 

This section focuses mainly on examining issues related to social determinants of health and placing these determinants within multilevel intermediate and structural drivers. It also investigates policies that influence these determinants and addresses their consequences in terms of health inequities.