The social component of public health in the 21st century

Authors

  • Francisco Raúl Rojas Ochoa

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to present and to discuss the prevailing ideas that state that health care systems should
be considered as social and cultural systems at the same time. To this end, a literature review on this topic was made. In
the society, medicine is mainly in charge of fighting diseases; however, the criterion that human health requires that the
organization of the society pays attention to disease prevention and health promotion has not paved its way yet. Health
care systems should be both social and cultural systems. This has led to the population health approach in which a wide
range of determining health patterns and a strategy aimed at the whole population are dealt with. The strategies should
cover a wide range of health determinants such as 1) incomes and social position, 2) education 3) physical environment
4) employment and working conditions, 5) biological characteristics and genetic conditions, 6) development of a healthy
child 7) social support networks and 8) health care services. The health care sector cannot act by itself because most of
the determining health care factors are outside its competence. This discloses the need for an inter-sector approach. The
strategy for the development of the population health policy includes three lines: 1) to strengthen the understanding
of population about the determining health factors and to promote people’s involvement in actions improving the population
health, 2) to strengthen the awareness of the determining health factors and to support the population health
approach in other governmental sectors different from the health care and in mass and social organizations, 3) to promote
and develop comprehensive interdisciplinary and inter-sector health initiatives for key priorities that may have a significant
potential impact on the population health.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Published

2025-09-30

How to Cite

1.
Rojas Ochoa FR. The social component of public health in the 21st century. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [Internet]. 2025 Sep. 30 [cited 2025 Oct. 6];51. Available from: https://revsaludpublica.sld.cu/index.php/spu/article/view/41020