Publications
- Epi+demos+cracy: Linking Political Systems and Priorities to the Magnitude of Health Inequities—Evidence, Gaps, and a Research A
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- by Beckfield, Jason; Krieger, Nancy
- A new focus within both social epidemiology and political sociology investigates how political systems and
priorities shape health inequities. To advance—and better integrate—research on political determinants of health
inequities, the authors conducted a systematic search of the ISI Web of Knowledge and PubMed databases and
identified 45 studies, commencing in 1992, that explicitly and empirically tested, in relation to an a priori political
hypothesis, for either 1) changes in the magnitude of health inequities or 2) significant cross-national differences in
the magnitude of health inequities. Overall, 84% of the studies focused on the global North, and all clustered
around 4 political factors: 1) the transition to a capitalist economy; 2) neoliberal restructuring; 3) welfare states; and
4) political incorporation of subordinated racial/ethnic, indigenous, and gender groups. The evidence suggested
that the first 2 factors probably increase health inequities, the third is inconsistently related, and the fourth helps
reduce them. In this review, the authors critically summarize these studies’ findings, consider methodological
limitations, and propose a research agenda—with careful attention to spatiotemporal scale, level, time frame
(e.g., life course, historical generation), choice of health outcomes, inclusion of polities, and specification of political
mechanisms—to address the enormous gaps in knowledge that were identified.
- Publication Type: Published Paper
- Published Date: May 2009
- Field of Interest: Global Issues
- Beckfield, Jason, and Nancy Krieger. "Epi + demos + cracy: Linking Political Systems and Priorities to the Magnitude of Health Inequities—Evidence, Gaps, and a Research Agenda." Epidemiologic Reviews, May 27, 2009.
