Social Determinants of Health : An Interdisciplinary Approach to Social Inequality and Wellbeing

This book provides an applied, interdisciplinary approach to an understanding of the key social determinants of health, essential at a time of increasing inequalities and reductions in existing NHS services and local authority budgets.

A person's health and wellbeing is influenced by a spectrum of socioeconomic, cultural, living and working conditions, social and community networks and lifestyle choices. Based on the 'rainbow model' of the social determinants of health, chapters from experts in a wide range of disciplines examine the key factors which can lead to poor quality of life, homelessness and reduced mortality.

Featuring practitioner, academic and commentator experiences, and clear case studies, this book will enable researchers, front-line workers, managers, service commissioners and politicians to identify and employ the most appropriate health, social and economic interventions to support those at the edge of the community, and the promotion of their inclusion in society.

Dr Kayleigh Garthwaite is a Birmingham Fellow in the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology, University of Birmingham, UK. Kayleigh explores issues of poverty, stigma and welfare reform through qualitative and ethnographic research. She is author of Hunger Pains: life inside foodbank Britain (Policy Press, 2016) and co-author of Poverty and insecurity: Life in 'low-pay, no-pay' Britain (Policy Press, 2012), winners of the Peter Townsend Prize 2017 and 2013 respectively. She can be followed on Twitter @KA_Garthwaite

Clare Bambra is a Professor of Public Health at Newcastle University.

Anne-Marie Bagnall is Professor of Health & Wellbeing Evidence and Director of the Centre for Health Promotion Research at Leeds Beckett University.

Katherine Smith is Professor of Public Health Policy at University of Strathclyde.

Adrian Bonner is Honorary Professor at the University of Stirling, and a consultant in community-based research for The Salvation Army. He was formerly Director of the Addictive Behaviour Group, in the Centre for Health Service Studies at the University of Kent.