Edited by Nason Maani, Mark Petticrew, and Sandro Galea
An accessible multidisciplinary overview for anyone seeking to understand the commercial determinants of health
Our health is largely shaped by the world around us ; by the conditions in which we grow, work, and live. These conditions include the commercial determinants of health, the private sector activities which influence our physical and social environments, our available evidence and solutions, and even our discourse and understanding around key health and social issues.
Until recently, commercial determinants have remained largely absent from our conceptual understanding of the drivers of health. The scale of their potential impact necessitates a multidisciplinary and intersectional approach, but no book has yet explored the commercial impacts on health in their totality.
This pioneering volume sheds light on how commercial determinants shape health directly and indirectly through influencing policy, evidence, and discourse. Featuring original cross-sector research, The Commercial Determinants of Health draws on insights from a wide-ranging group of experts who introduce the commercial determinants of health and describe the proximal and distal pathways through which they affect population health. Each chapter further illustrates the health impact of commercial actors, including through multidisciplinary case studies ranging from tobacco to fossil fuels. Together, these essays seek to integrate new and emerging research across public health, economics, and policy to enrich our understanding and responses to the commercial determinants of health.
Available to purchase here and via ebook.
Reviews
“…The book's chapters span the myriad of ways that profit-seeking actors and activities ‘influence health at every level of society, directly and indirectly’. The aim of the authors is to take stock of this ‘rapidly growing field’ and grow this community of scholars, policy makers, and advocates. This community, including the contributors to this book, have successfully exposed the wide-ranging health-harming activities of certain industries dominated by transnational corporations…”
— Dr. Kelley Lee, The Lancet
“The recently published book, The Commercial Determinants of Health, provides an overview of the current debates surrounding how commercial actors influence population health. The term commercial determinants of health, while relatively new, offers an important conceptual framework to more fully understand the factors that impact health. The book also provides an opportunity to elaborate on the possibilities to build healthy public policy and enrich our scholarly and teaching activities within schools of public health and the social science faculties.”
— Dr. Steve Machat, Healthy Populations Journal
“This book is comprehensive, well curated and thoughtfully structured. It is an important book for anyone interested in this area, which, considering the reach of money, profit, power and influence, should be everyone.”
— Dr. Robert Calder, Addiction