The challenge for healthcare systems in the XXI century: how to incorporate the focus of social determinants in healthcare?

Abstract

During the 20th century, a series of reflections on the role of biomedicine and social factors in the concept of health and disease processes served as a necessary prelude to the conceptual and empirical development of what later became known as the social determinants of health. In relation to this perspective, the question arises: What is the role of modern health systems from the perspective of the social determinants of health? This article presents an alternative view of the role of health systems from the focus of the social determinants of health, raising its importance and influence on the structural level, while addressing its implications as an intermediary determinant of health inequalities.