PUBLIC LECTURE: Improving health in the 21st century: a social determinants perspective

The health of populations is determined by multiple factors including our genes, lifestyle choices, access to good quality health care, as well as broader social determinants such as early childhood social environments. Since the advent of the Human Genome Project, however, a disproportionate level of intellectual effort and funding seems to have been directed toward genes as the driver of population health. A witty observer once remarked that the prestige (and level of funding) of a research field is inversely proportional to the size of the object that is being investigated, hence kudos for investigators who chase after single nucleotide polymorphisms. By contrast, if the object of your inquiry happens to be the whole of society...

In this lecture, Professor Kawachi will argue that improving the health of populations in the 21st century will require concerted and systematic efforts to invest in the broader social determinants of health. These investments include improving the quality of the social environment for our children, enhancing the quality of our residential communities, assuring the availability of decent work, and striving toward a more equitable distribution of wealth and incomes.

Ichiro Kawachi is Professor of Social Epidemiology and the Director of the Harvard Center for Society and Health, both at the Harvard School of Public Health. Kawachi received both his medical degree and Ph.D. (in epidemiology) from the University of Otago, New Zealand. Since 1992 he has taught at the Harvard School of Public Health. Kawachi has published over 300 articles on the social and economic determinants of population health. He was the co-editor (with Lisa Berkman) of the first textbook on Social Epidemiology, published by Oxford University Press in 2000. Other books include "The Health of Nations" with Bruce Kennedy (The New Press, 2002), "Neighborhoods and Health" with Lisa Berkman (Oxford University Press, 2003), "Globalization and Health" with Sarah Wamala of the Swedish National Institute of Public Health (Oxford University Press, 2006), and "Social Capital and Health" (Springer, 2008) co-edited with S.V. Subramanian and Daniel Kim. Kawachi has been a member of the MacArthur Network on SES and Health since 1998. Kawachi currently serves as the Senior Editor (Social Epidemiology) of the "International Journal of Social Science & Medicine", as well as an Editor of the "American Journal of Epidemiology". He has served as a consultant to the Pan-American Health Organization/WHO and the World Bank. Most recently, he served as Special Advisor to the Measurement Knowledge Network of the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health.

Dr Kawachi is a 2007 Healthway Visiting Scholar. The lecture is co-sponsored by the Institute of Advanced Studies and the School of Population Health at UWA.