Cebu City - Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. This is according to the World Health Organization. Good health is something we strive to achieve, not just individually but also as a community. But if we look around us, our families, our friends, and others, we know that health is very variable. It is very important to focus on each area, rather than just the physical aspect, which is the most common thing we usually think of when we speak of health.

There are a lot of factors that can influence a person’s health. A wide range of factors determines the health status of a person. In short, these are determinants of health.

An example of these determinants would be WHO they are e.g. age, sex, genetic factors; WHAT they do, meaning health behavior such as, smoking, physical activity, alcohol use, and diet; and CONDITIONS in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age; these include their social and community networks, socio-economic, cultural, and environmental conditions, and health systems people live in. All these are collectively called Social Determinants of Health (SDH).

These SDH are non-medical factors that affect each person and that the SDH are ultimately shaped by the distribution of money, power, resources, at an international, national, and local level. They have a marked influence on health inequities which is the unfair and unavoidable differences between different groups of people within countries or between countries.

In countries at all levels of income, health, and illness follow a social gradient: the lower the socioeconomic position, the worse the health. Addressing SDH appropriately is fundamental for improving health and reducing longstanding inequities in health, which requires action by all sectors and civil society. // ND II Mary Carmeli C. Garrovillo, RND