In a new publication, Professor Mike Kelly, lead of the Health Inequalities research pillar at Cambridge Public Health, collaborates with other authors to outline ten vital steps for comprehensively addressing health inequalities.
This approach emphasises a syndemic viewpoint, moving the discussion about health inequalities beyond both the conventional accounts of lifestyle risk factors and the wider determinants of health.
Take a syndemic approach
The first step asserts that tackling health inequalities requires a syndemic approach, understanding the dynamic and intricate interplay of disease, behaviour, biology, and social conditions. Syndemic recognises the intrinsic role of social and economic circumstances in shaping the development and progression of ill health.
The publication outlines further measures including thinking beyond multi-morbidity, going beyond association to cause, going beyond cause to action, and taking the life course seriously.
Avoiding past mistakes
The authors acknowledge that these steps are not novel; however, the challenge lies in getting them to happen and knowing how to bring about change.
To bridge this gap, the focus should be on pragmatically reducing health inequalities by implementing known effective strategies and avoiding practices that are recognised to cause harm and widen inequalities.
To do this, we need to think differently - syndemically - about the problem, and to provide solutions that avoid the mistakes that have been made so often in the past.