I met with the Toronto Star editorial board. Their response to my concern
about lack of coverage of the social determinants of health [social factors
affecting health] was:
!!! "You imply that we are not covering this story" !!!
Health reporters for ALL the major newspapers are fixated on medical treatment
and lifestyle.
We need to begin a gradual drumbeat so the media can pick up on this story and
realize that there is real interest in it among the public.
I suggest the following:
1. people gradually (how gradual?) begin to contact reporters. Here are some
e-mails and fax numbers. You may wish to graduate to phone calls to the Star,
the Globe, the evil National Post, and/or your local newspapers. References
are below. You can also refer to information you are aware of.
2. Our goal should be to get papers to carry as many stories about social
determinants as they do about lifestyle, genes, medical treatments, etc.
3. This will not be easy. The alternative is to see our society continue to
collapse around us.
Please forward this message wide and far...
Toronto Star fax: 869-4322
[log in to unmask] Editorial Board
[log in to unmask] "health reporter"
[log in to unmask] "medical reporter"
[log in to unmask] "provincial reporter"
[log in to unmask] "demographics reporter"
[log in to unmask] "economics editor"
The Globe and Mail fax: 416-585-5085
[log in to unmask] "public health reporter"
[log in to unmask] "health reporter"
[log in to unmask] "medical reporter"
[log in to unmask] "ethics and religion editor"
[log in to unmask] "economics reporter"
Metro Morning Vox Box: 205-5807
Key References
Overviews of the Economic Inequality and Health Relationship
Daniels, N., Kennedy, B. & Kawachi, I. (2000). Justice is good for our
health: How greater economic equality would promote public health. Boston
Review, 25 (1), 4-21. On-line at
http://bostonreview.mit.edu/BR25.1/daniels.html.
Kawachi, I., Kennedy, B.P., & Wilkinson, R.G. (eds.) (1999). Income
inequality and health. New York: New Press. [set of 40 key readings in the
area].
International Health Program (2000). Health and income equity web site.
University of Washington and Health Alliance International. On-line at
http://depts.washington.edu/eqhlth.
Montague, P (1996). Economic inequality and health. Rachel's
Environment & Health Weekly #497. Annapolis, IN: Environmental Research
Foundation. On-line at http://www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?St=3
Montague, P. (1998). Major causes of ill health. Rachel's Environment &
Health Weekly #584. On-line at http://www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?St=3
Wilkinson, R. G. (1996). Unhealthy societies: The afflictions of
inequality. NY: Routledge. Wilkinson, R. G. & Marmot, M. (eds) (1998).
Social determinants of health: The solid facts. Copenhagen: World Health
Organization. On-line at http://www.who.dk/healthy-cities/.
British Overviews of Health Inequalities
Acheson, D. (1998). Independent Inquiry into inequalities in health.
Stationary Office: London: UK . On-line at http://
www.official-documents.co.uk/document/doh/ih/contents.htm.
Gordon, D., Shaw, M., Dorling, D. & Davey Smith, G. (eds). (1999).
Inequalities in health: The evidence presented to the independent inquiry into
inequalities. Bristol UK: The Policy Press. Available through
http://amazon.co.uk.
Shaw, M., Dorling, D., Gordon, D. & Davey Smith, G. (1999). The
widening gap: Health inequalities and policy in Britain. Bristol UK: The
Policy
Press. Available through http://amazon.co.uk.
Townsend, P., Davidson, N., & Whitehead, M. (Eds) (1992). Inequalities
in health: the Black report and the Health divide. New York: Penguin.
Canadian Overviews of Health Inequalities
Canadian Institute on Children's Health (1994). The health of Canada's
children: A CICH profile. Ottawa: Author.
Ross, D. P. & Roberts, P. (1999). Income and child well-being: A new
perspective on the poverty debate. Ottawa: Canadian Council on Social
Development. On-line at http://www.ccsd.ca/pubs/inckids/es.htm.
Townsend, M. (1998). Health and wealth. Ottawa: Canadian Centre for
Policy Alternatives. Available through http://www.policyalternatives.ca.
United States Overviews of Health Inequalities
Office of Minority Health, Minnesota (1997). Populations of color in
Minnesota: Health status report. Minneapolis: Minnesota Department of Health.
US Department of Health and Human Services (1998). Health, United
States, 1998: Socioeconomic status and health chartbook. On-line at
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hus/2010/98chtbk.htm.
How Economic Inequality Affects Health
Bartley, M., Blane, D., & Montgomery, S. (1997). Health and the life
course: Why safety nets matter. British Medical Journal, 314, 1194-1196.
On-line at http://www.bmj.com.
British Medical Journal (1996). Editorial: The big idea. British
Medical
Journal, 312, 985. On-line at http://www.bmj.com.
Coburn, D. (in press). Income inequality, lowered social cohesion, and
the poorer health status of populations: the role of neo-liberalism. Social
Science and Medicine.
Glyn, A. & Millibrant, D. (1994). Paying for inequality: The economic
cost of social injustice. London UK: IPPR/Rivers Press.
Lynch, J. W., Davey Smith, G., Kaplan, G. A., & House, J. S. (in
press).
Income inequality and health: a neo-material interpretation. British Medical
Journal.
Raphael, D. (in press). From increasing poverty to societal
disintegration: How economic inequality affects the health of individuals and
communities. In H. Armstrong, P. Armstrong, & D. Coburn (eds.), The political
economy of health and health care in Canada. Toronto: Oxford University Press.
Raphael, D. (in press). Health effects of inequality. Canadian Review
of Social Policy.
Smith, G. D. (1996). Editorial: Income inequality and mortality: Why
are they related? British Medical Journal, 312, 987-988. On-line at
http://www.bmj.com.
Policy Studies
Auerbach, J. & Belous, R. (eds) (1998). The inequality paradox: Growth
of income disparity. Washington DC: National Policy Association.
Galbraith, J. (1998). Created unequal: The crisis in American pay.
NY:
The Free Press.
Laxer, J. (1998). The undeclared war: Class conflict in the age of
cyber-capitalism. Toronto: Viking.
Muntaner, C. & Lynch, J. (1999). Income inequality, social cohesion,
and class relations: a critique of Wilkinson's neo-Durkheimian research
program.
International Journal of Health Services, 29, 59-81.
Rainwater, L. & Smeeding, T. (1995). Doing poorly: the real income of
American children in a comparative perspective. Working Paper 127, Luxembourg
Income Study. On-line at http://lissy.ceps.lu/wpapersentire.htm; then
ftp://lissy.ceps.lu/127.pdf.
Wolff, E. N. (1995). Top heavy: The increasing inequality of wealth in
America and what can be done about it. New York: The New Press.
Yalnizyan, A. (1998). The growing gap: a report on growing inequality
between the rich and poor in Canada. Toronto: Centre for Social Justice.
Available through http://www.socialjustice.org.
Yalnizyan, A. (2000). Canada's great divide: The politics of the
growing
gap between rich and poor in the 1990's. Toronto: Centre for Social Justice.
Available through http://www.socialjustice.org.
Health Sector Responses to Health Inequalities
Canadian Public Health Association (1996). Action statement on health
promotion. Ottawa: Author. On-line at
http://www.cpha/cpha.docs/ActionStatement.eng.html.
Health Canada (1998). Taking action on population health: a position
paper for Health Promotion and Programs Branch Staff. Ottawa: Health Canada.
On-line at http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/main/hppb/phdd/resource.htm.
Minkler, M. (ed). (1997). Community organizing and community building
for health. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Orfield, M. (1997). Metropolitics: A regional agenda for community and
stability. Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Pantazis, C. & Gordon, D. (eds.) (2000). Tackling inequalities: Where
are we now and what can be done? Bristol UK: Policy Press. Available through
http://amazon.co.uk.
Raphael, D. (in press). Health inequalities in Canada: Current
discourses and implications for public health action. Critical Public Health.
Raphael, D. (1998). Public health responses to health inequalities.
Canadian Journal of Public Health, 89, 380-381.
Raphael D., Steinmetz, B., & Renwick R (1999). The community quality of
life project: A health promotion approach to understanding communities. Health
Promotion International, 14, 197-210.
Visit our Web Sites for information and reports from all of our Quality of Life
Projects!
http://www.utoronto.ca/qol http://www.utoronto.ca/seniors
******************************************************************
In the early hours I read in the paper of epoch-making projects
On the part of pope and sovereigns, bankers and oil barons.
With my other eye I watch
The pot with the water for my tea
The way it clouds and starts to bubble and clears again
And overflowing the pot quenches the fire.
-- Bertolt Brecht
******************************************************************
Dennis Raphael, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Public Health Sciences
Graduate Department of Community Health
University of Toronto
McMurrich Building, Room 308
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5S 1A8
voice: (416) 978-7567
fax: (416) 978-2087
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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