FROM HEALTH CARE LAW TO THE SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH: A PUBLIC HEALTH LAW RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE

Research over the past three decades has demonstrated that population health is shaped powerfully by "[t]he contexts in which people live, learn, work, and play"-also called "social determinants of health" or "fundamental social causes of disease." The World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), have all launched major initiatives aimed at addressing the social influences on health. Neither the research nor the calls for action, however, have penetrated common knowledge, as a recent RWJF report recounts.