Reference no: EM133467164

Case: At the individual and population levels, healthy behaviors are linked to a wide range of outcomes in terms of health and wellbeing. In this review, we highlight the application of a "social determinants" approach, which is currently commonly used to study health, to the specific subject of health behaviors. We do this by drawing on recent sociological and related field research. With such a strategy, the focus is shifted from personal accountability and attribution for health behaviors to societal organization and the numerous institutions, structures, disparities, and beliefs that support observed diversity in health behaviors. We stress that a population-based approach that places people in context and emphasizes social determinants is not at odds with the inclusion of biological and psychological processes; rather, it recognizes their interaction in complex, dynamic systems.

Many current investigations are guided by life course frameworks that emphasize interdisciplinarity, history, time, context, and linked lives. Notably, an increasing emphasis on linkages across health behaviors is emerging as a result of the conceptual refocusing on social determinants and societal organization, upending the more typical single-disease or single-health behavior approach to research and research specialty. This conceptual framework will steer future approaches in "social determinants" research on health behaviors. There will be plenty of room for imaginative inquiry due to the amount of new data, which includes but is not limited to administrative, geographic, social network, social media, medical, and genetic data. Context dictates how much we know about the dynamics of health behavior. The Affordable Care Act's implementation in the U.S. and the permitted use of marijuana in some settings are two examples of how society is changing, and how this has left our understanding of individual health behaviors incomplete because it depends on context. The dynamics, determinants, and effects of their health behaviors will alter, as will the groups that use marijuana or seek medical attention. This intricacy will be further elaborated by cutting-edge research on the social determinants of health behaviors, which will further broaden the conceptual frameworks that underpin health behavior study.