The idea that housing, food security, aboriginal status, income and income distribution among other factors would influence the health of a population seems obvious to many Canadians today. However, it has only been since 1974 with the release of the Lalonde report that our government has looked at health promotion strategies as a serious option to improve the health of a population rather than using solely a biomedical perspective1. The Lalonde model has evolved to the point of where we have the Canadian social determinants of health today. These are like the World Health Organization’s (WHO) social determinants of health, but are tailored to better suit Canada’s own challenges2. Social determinants of health seeks to address a broad range …show more content…
Germ theory looked at health on an individual basis, and defined health as an absence of disease5. There was a very overt emphasis on being able to perform daily tasks and be a functioning member of society6. This began to change in 1974 with the Lalonde report7, which has grown into the social determinants of health we see today. Initially the report gave rise to the health promotion movement. This led to campaigns that affected legislation on things like smoking and exercise, however it was still very individually centered. It suggested that people have control over their own health, such as having the choice to smoke or not, and disregarded the social determinants that may lead an individual to take up bad habits7. Regardless, using the health promotion framework during the 1980’s the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research was able to produce evidence of the health inequities present among Canadian populations that contributed to the push for policy changes to address these issues7. The Ottawa Charter, an international agreement reached in 1986 identified five key areas of health promotion that needed improvement. These action areas include building healthy public policy, creating supportive environments, strengthening community action, developing personal skills, and re-orienting health services towards preventing illness and promoting health8. Then in 1994, the Public Health Agency of Canada9 defined population health