Determinants of health

HEALTH DETERMINANTS
• Factors that influence the occurrence and
nonoccurrence of health outcome
• There are different health determinants that could
be understood in different ways that include:

• Genetic/hereditary
• Behaviour and lifestyle
• Socio-economical

• Environmental

• Healthcare or health service.

HEALTH DETERMINANTS …
1.Hereditary determinants
• Genetic endowment of individuals can
predispose or act as a cause of disease through
transferring defective genes.
• hemophilia and sickle cell anemia
• Asthma, hypertension
HEALTH DETERMINANTS …
2. Behavioral determinants
• Behaviour and lifestyle is the other broad
category of determinants.

• Lifestyle is made up of the habits and customs

that influence, modify, promote, prohibit or
constrain behavior that impacts on health, which
we learn through the process of socialization.
HEALTH DETERMINANTS …

• These habits and customs include

• use of substances- alcohol, tobacco, khat and
coffee.
• Readiness to take exercise
• More extreme behaviours such as female
genital mutilation.
HEALTH DETERMINANTS …
3. Socio-economical determinants
• food supply or taboo,
• economical status and social relationships,
transportation, education level, employment
status.

• laws a society passes regarding the

• legal drinking age and seat belt use,
• Availability of medical care, and cultural
norms regarding diet.
HEALTH DETERMINANTS …
4. Environmental determinants
• biological, chemical and physical environment.
• The biological environmental
• vectors for disease transmission;
• humans and plants are reservoirs of infection
• plants and animals can be sources of drugs
and antigens.
HEALTH DETERMINANTS …

• The chemical environmental

• arsenic,
• lead,
• mercury

• The physical environment

• characteristics of the terrain/land slide,
• radiation,
• noise pollution and other physical harm.
HEALTH DETERMINANTS …
5.Health service related determinants
• Availability,
• Accessibility,
• Acceptability and
• Quality of health services.
Ecological model