The health system and wider social determinants of health

Health is an outcome of the circumstances of people's lives, the communities and environments in which people live and work, the nature of the social relationships, goods, and services people encounter, and the choices people make around these conditions. This chapter identifies these influences over the distribution of health and well-being across population groups, countries, and regions. It outlines models used to summarize and explain the social determinants of health. Further, it considers the types of interventions and actions that must be taken outside the health sector to improve the distribution of health and well-being, and what that implies for the role of the health sector within the wider health system. In some aspects, the chapter draws on the learning from the work in the World Health Organization (WHO) Commission of the Social Determinants of Health (CSDH), and particularly the Health Systems Knowledge network of the CSDH, and the learning and analysis from work in the Regional Network for Equity in Health in East and Southern Africa (EQUINET).