Linking political systems and priorities to the magnitude of health inequities: Evidence, gaps and a research agenda
Author(s)/Editor(s): Beckfield J, Krieger N
Publisher/Organizer: Epidemiologic Reviews
Publication date: 27 May 2009.
Language: English
Overview
“A new focus within both social epidemiology and political sociology investigates how political systems and priorities shape health inequities. To advance—and better integrate—research on political determinants of health inequities, the authors conducted a systematic search of the ISI Web of Knowledge and PubMed databases and identified 45 studies, commencing in 1992, that explicitly and empirically tested, in relation to an a priori political hypothesis, for either changes in the magnitude of health inequities or significant cross-national differences in the magnitude of health inequities.
Overall, 84% of the studies focused on the global North, and all clustered around 4 political factors:
- the transition to a capitalist economy;
- neoliberal restructuring;
- welfare states; and
- political incorporation of subordinated racial/ethnic, indigenous, and gender groups.