WHO | Tackling social factors to improve health

WHO Tackling social factors to improve health
Professor Sir Michael Marmot was born in London. He earned his MD in 1968 at the University of Sydney, Australia, and a PhD in epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley, United States. He started his career as a doctor at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, University of Sydney in 1969. Marmot has been at the forefront of research in health inequalities for the past 20 years, most famously as Principal Investigator of the Whitehall studies of British civil servants. He is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London (UCL) and Director of the UCL International Institute for Society and Health, which he set up in 2005. Marmot was appointed Chair of WHO’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health in 2005.
Many governments recognize that factors such as status, education and employment have an impact on people’s health, but few have tackled these social determinants head on. WHO established a commission in March 2005 to come up with recommendations on how countries can address these. One year later, the Commission’s chair Professor Sir Michael Marmot tells the Bulletin how WHO’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health is helping governments tackle underlying factors to improve the health and well-being particularly of disadvantaged populations.