CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF ECUADOR

FACULTY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES

MEDICAL CAREER
CHAIR OF EPIDEMIOLOGY
STUDENT: Nathaly Fernanda Vargas Gordon
PARALLEL: HCAM-1
DATE: February 14, 2017

DETERMINED THEM BEFORE HEALTH

The determinants of health are properties based on lifestyles and are affected by economic,
social and political forces that influence the quality of health of the individual. (1)

The determinants of health comprise two large groups, the proximal determinants or
microdeterminants , which correspond to the individual level and stimulate the progress of
genetic and molecular epidemiology; and the distal determinants or macrodeterminants ,
which correspond to the population level and allow the development of social epidemiology.

Microdeterminants

- Biological factors and genetic flow.- corresponds to the genetic, physiological and
developmental characteristics of individuals.
- Individual factors and preferences in lifestyles - covers all elements of individual
behavior, which in turn are conditioned by social contexts.
- Community influences and social support.- encompasses all the variables
associated with the levels of integration and social participation of individuals.
- Access to health care services.- includes the ways in which health systems are
organized to provide access to different services in order to improve the health
status of the general population.

Macrodeterminates
 - Living and working conditions - seeks to guarantee access to housing, employment
and education, including an appropriate physical environment, quality, safety and
equity for the health of the population.
- General socioeconomic, cultural and environmental conditions.- directs its
epidemiological approach to society, as the set of individuals who interact with
each other, encompassing socioeconomic characteristics, together with politics
and government, in order to establish a state of equity in that refers to public
health.

Knowing the different determinants of health allows us to develop techniques aimed at

maintaining the health status of the population, through the improvement of epidemiological
alert and response systems to preserve health security, identification of the main health
problems and the different groups. risk in addition to morbidity-mortality trends in a
population, in order to establish health control and prevention measures. (2)

Bibliography

1. Paho.org. 2011 [cited 13 February 2017]. Available from:

http://www.paho.org/col/index.php?
option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=853&Itemid=
2. Gomez A. PAHO WHO | Determinants of Health [Internet]. Pan American Health
Organization / World Health Organization. 2016 [cited 13 February 2017]. Available
from: http://www.paho.org/hq/index.php?
option=com_content&view=article&id=5165%3A2011-determinants-
health&catid=5075%3Ahealth-promotion&Itemid=3745&lang=es