Overview
Various efforts have been made to understand the spectrum of determinants of health outside of traditional clinical and public health frameworks. The social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age – and how they impact overall health. The political determinants of health relate to how health is inherently political and the ways that political decisions impact health outcomes. The commercial determinants of health consider strategies and approaches used by the private sector to promote products that can be detrimental to population health.
The Lancet-London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Commission into the Emotional Determinants of Health will bring the important dimension of emotions to this ecosystem of levers that impact on health decisions and outcomes. Ultimately, decisions about health are not only reliant on a rational process but are also impacted by our hopes or fears, anxieties and worries, and empathy and feelings, which are intertwined with political and social determinants, but merit their own attention.
Emotions are learned. Historical experiences shared by communities can help internalise communal emotions that influence acceptance or rejection of government or outsider health interventions, especially among marginalised groups. Policy makers have their own emotions as they make decisions, faced with the emotions of publics – sometimes anger, sometime hope.
This Commission will explore and gather evidence on the emotional determinants of health in diverse settings and across different actors to generate recommendations and guidance for better preparedness and management of emotions in the context of clinical and public health.
