Publications

The Health of People and Communities - A Way Forward: Public Policy and the Economic Determinants of Health

Date of publication: October 2004

• Summary
• Publication availability
• Publishing information
• Background Papers

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Summary

This report prepared by the New Zealand Public Health Advisory Committee (PHAC), is concerned with the relationship between socioeconomic status and health. It focuses on the role that public policy can play in reducing inequalities in health.

The report begins by acknowledging the considerable disparities existing among New Zealanders: for instance – men on low incomes have twice the risk of premature death as those on high incomes, and being Maori further increases the risk of death across all socioeconomic categories. The challenge is to improve the health of all to the same level as those who have the best health, without distinction for ethnicity, social or economic position.

The report builds on a 1998 National Health Committee report, focusing on more recent evidence of the effect of economic policies on the socioeconomic determinants of health and the links with health outcomes. It is based on three information strands: a literature review and Maori analysis; interviews with government and non-government agencies; and a workshop and hui that looked at possible policy responses to identified public health problems.

Throughout the report, the term “health” includes physical, mental, emotional, family/whanau, community and spiritual wellbeing.

The strongest influences on people’s health, the report says, come from factors outside the health system. They include the social, cultural, physical and economic environments in which people live. Although there are many factors from within these spheres with a strong influence on people’s health, many of these factors are largely unmodifiable by policy, public health or medical interventions. The report therefore focuses its attention on the wider socioeconomic determinants of health (such as housing, employment and income) that have the potential to be modified by government policy.

The report recommends what it calls the “first steps” toward diminishing health inequalities: reduction of poverty; a “whole of government” responsibility for co-ordinating and monitoring policy for reducing health inequalities; focusing on making transparent the changing relationships of socioeconomic status and ethnicity to health outcomes and on tracing the health effects of central and local government policies; and focusing on the need for research to identify more effective policy interventions and to better understand the causal paths linking socioeconomic status, ethnicity and health.

The PHAC concludes there are sound economic as well as social reasons for seeking to improve health and well-being. Recent research has estimated that if the health status of all New Zealanders was at the level of those with the best health in the country, almost 5,000 deaths could be avoided. Improved health status would also reduce work absences, potentially bring higher productivity and overall economic gains for the country.

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Publication availability

This publication is available in PDF format below:

A Way Forward: Public policy and the economic determinants of health (PDF, 457 KB)

This publication is also available in hard copy. You can order a copy by emailing moh@wickliffe.co.nz or calling 04 496 2277 quoting HP number 3840. Please let us know your name, your physical address and how many copies you would like.

Go to information about downloading publications

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Publishing information

Date of publication: October 2004

ISBN: 0478-25347-8 (Book)
ISBN: 0478-25348-6 (Internet)

HP: 3840

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Background Papers

Economic Determinants of Health – A report to the Public Health Advisory Committee. A literature review. King J. August 2003
Economic Determinants of Māori Health and Disparities: A review for Te Rōpū Tohutohu i te Hauora Tūmatanui (PHAC). June 2004
Economic development and health policy. Chapman R, Howden-Chapman P. A Report to the Public Health Advisory Committee, Feb 2004