To date, Ontario public health units (PHUs) have generally neglected the social determinants of health (SDH) concept in favor of risk aversion and behaviorally oriented health promotion approaches. Addressing SDH and responding to the presence of health inequities is required under the Ontario Public Health Standards and is a component of provincial public health documents and reports. Nevertheless, units vary in their understanding and application of the SDH concept in their activities. The authors conducted 18 interviews with Medical Officers of Health and lead staff persons from nine Ontario PHUs, in order to better understand how these differences in addressing the SDH among health units come about. The findings suggest that differences in practice largely result from epistemological variations: conceptions of the SDH; the perceived role of public health in addressing them; and understandings concerning the validity of differing forms of evidence and expected outcomes. Drawing from Bachelard's concept of epistemological barriers and Raphael's seven discourses on the SDH, we examine the ways in which the participating units discuss and apply the SDH concepts. We argue that a substantial barrier to further action on the SDH is the internalization of discourses and traditions that treat health as individualized and depoliticized.
Despite a history of conceptual contributions to reducing health inequalities by addressing the social determinants of health (SDH), Canadian governmental authorities have struggled to put these concepts into action. Ontario's-Canada's most populous province-public health scene shows a similar pattern. In statements and reports, governmental ministries, professional associations and local public health units (PHUs) recognize the importance of these issues, yet there has been varying implementation of these concepts into public health activity. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the key features responsible for differences in SDH-related activities among local PHUs. We interviewed Medical Officers of Health (MOH) and key staff members from nine local PHUs in Ontario varying in SDH activity as to their understandings of the SDH, public health's role in addressing the SDH, and their units' SDH-related activities. We also reviewed their unit's documents and their organizational structures in relation to acting on the SDH. Three clusters of PHUs are identified based on their SDH-related activities: service-delivery-oriented; intersectoral and community-based; and public policy/public education-focused. The two key factors that differentiate PHUs are specific ideological commitments held by MOHs and staff and the organizational structures established to carry out SDH-related activities. The ideological commitments and the organizational structures of the most active PHUs showed congruence with frameworks adopted by national jurisdictions known for addressing health inequalities. These include a structural analysis of the SDH and a centralized organizational structure that coordinates SDH-related activities.
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