We explain what social health is in a community, the factors that intervene in it and its impact on individual and collective life.
What is social health?
The concept of social health may not be as common to us as that of physical health or even emotional health, but it is as important as any of these. Social health is understood as set of economic and social factors and conditions that influence the state of health of individuals, in the long term.
These are community factors (rather than individual ones, such as genetic inheritance or personal lifestyle) that also have a vital impact on life expectancy or the vulnerability of individuals to diseases. For this reason, the WHO studies these types of factors through the Commission on Social Determinants of Health.
Our social health It is determined by the type of social ties that we can establish in our community in the positive or negative influence they exert, and in the conditions of harmony or stress in which our social life develops. Factors such as:
- Exclusion and social marginalization.
- Conditions of employment.
- Public health programs and access to educational services.
- Gender equality and cultural discrimination.
- Urban living conditions.
- Nature of emotional ties and emotional life.
It is known that in toxic, impoverished, isolated and constantly impoverished social environments, social ties tend to deteriorate and become sources of suffering, having negative consequences for physical and mental health in the long run.
This has nothing to do with the dynamics of personal improvement or self-help, but with the degree of health of the social environment in which individuals develop.
That is why socially isolated individuals, at odds with the community or marginalized by it, have great difficulties in social and economic advancement, even though they are productive members of society. On the contrary, Those who enjoy better social health have more possibilities for development even if they are on the same economic level.
The main contributors to social health in a nation tend to be public health policies, as well as initiatives to combat poverty, inequality and segregation in their various possible facets.
Continue with: Social phenomena
References
- “Social determinants of health” on Wikipedia.
- “Social health: definition, determinants and recommendations” at the International University of Valencia.
- “Social determinants of health” in World Health Organization.
- “How to improve our social health?” at Infosalus.com.
- “Social health” in Encyclopedia.com.
- “Social health” at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
