Prof. Craig Konnoth1
1University Of Virginia, United States
Biography:
Bio to come
Abstract:
Public health scholars have increasingly critiqued, what they call, the "medicalization" of Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), without defining the term. This paper investigates the meaning of "medicalization", and argues that SDOH medicalization is actually desirable for the field.
Medicalization can refer to institutional as well as discursive processes that began with the birth of modern medicine in the late nineteenth century. SDOH predates these developments, yet, it has received lasting traction only in the 1990s. This traction relies in part on SDOH's reliance on medical discourse and institutions. First, for the first time in its history, SDOH offers quantitative and etiological accounts that rely on modern medical knowledge of how social phenomena affect bodies and minds. Second, medical and nursing curricula increasingly incorporate SDOH. As SDOH increasingly becomes part of institutional knowledge and medical discourse, it can draw on their legitimacy. Finally, in practical terms, SDOH has increasingly become embedded into the law in medical contexts. American healthcare policy, for example, requires doctors to provide SDOH measures in electronic health records, reimburses for SDOH though medical funding streams, and incorporates social workers and lawyers within newer care models promoted by the Affordable Care Act. Medicalization is thus an important vehicle for establishing the legitimacy of SDOH.