Introduction
This paper is an article review of Healthy People: A 2020 Vision for the Social Determinants Approach by Koh, Piotrowski, Kumanyika, and Fielding (2011). It analyzes the article as a health resource by explaining the processes that preceded its identification, its main arguments, and how it contributes to public health research.
The Process of finding the Article and how I Determined it was Peer-Reviewed
The article selection process occurred through an online database (sage publications). Since the database contains different types of articles, I used one key phrase “how to improve public health interventions” to find articles that relate to the study focus. Later, I narrowed down the search results by using four keywords (health disparities, health policy, health promotion, and measurement development) to find the article. Because some online information is unreliable, I further narrowed down the findings to show peer-reviewed articles by limiting the database search to peer-reviewed articles only.
Summary of the Article and its Findings
In their article, Koh et al. (2011) discussed the efficacy of a health promotion program – Healthy People. The program aimed to “create social and physical environments that promote good health for all” (Koh et al., 2011, p. 551). Therefore, the authors discussed new social issues that affected public health outcomes in the community. In line with this focus, the study investigated how different social and economic factors, such as poverty, education, and social structures, affected public health outcomes. The outcome of their investigations showed that public health is a multifaceted issue that similarly requires a multifaceted approach to get the best outcomes (Koh et al., 2011). Furthermore, the study pointed out that a social determinants approach would create the multifaceted framework for enhancing collective efforts to improve public health. In line with this reasoning, Koh et al. (2011) believe that the new and inclusive framework for public health promotion could create a unified purpose for improving public health outcomes.
How the Article Expands My Knowledge of Public Health
Public health is a multifaceted discipline that includes different health-based initiatives, such as disease prevention and health promotion. Moreover, it involves different stakeholders, such as private organizations, public institutions, people, and communities (among others) (Angela and Sebastian, 2007). Koh et al. (2011) expand my knowledge about stakeholder involvement in public health initiatives because they explain how different groups can work together to improve community health outcomes. Particularly, they create a framework, which these different stakeholders could use to improve public health initiatives. For example, Jabbour and Yamout (2012) say public health officials could apply this multifaceted approach in policy formulation processes. Relative to this assertion, Koh et al. (2011) say, “Doing so could catalyze and broaden healthier public policies and private sector practices outside what had been traditionally considered the public health domain” (p. 552). Therefore, expanding the policy formulation process by adopting a multifaceted approach provides a platform for all stakeholders, to take part in public health initiatives (Crawford, 2010). Overall, the assertions of Koh et al. (2011) expand my knowledge of community health by showing how to improve health outcomes through socially inclusive frameworks, such as the social determinants approach.
Conclusion
This paper explores an insightful paper by Koh et al. (2011), which explains the need to approach community health issues through a multifaceted perspective. The approach is useful in public health research because it highlights how community health officials can improve their professional initiatives by including different stakeholder initiatives in their work. This paper also shows that these contributions could improve policy interventions, disease control, education and training (among other public health initiatives).
References
Angela, S., & Sebastian, G. (2007). Public Health: Social Context And Action: Social Context and Action. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill International.
Crawford, D. (2010). Obesity Epidemiology: From Aetiology to Public Health. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Jabbour, S., & Yamout, R. (2012). Public Health in the Arab World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Koh, H., Piotrowski, J., Kumanyika, S., & Fielding, J. (2011). Healthy People: A 2020 Vision for the Social Determinants Approach. Health Education & Behavior, 38(6), 551–557.