Project «Prevention is better than cure when aging is behind the door: interplay between social determinants of health in Spain (INTERSOC-HEALTH)» (RTI2018-099875-J-I00-MCIU/AEI/FEDER, EU) of the State Program R+D+I oriented to the Challenges of Society funded by the ERDF-Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and University-Spanish Research Agency.
The idea that «prevention is better than cure» takes a great relevance in the current strategic political (design of health public policies) thought since «prevention» has proved to be always cheaper and rather economically sustainable than «cure». Therefore, this project focuses on social factors that permit to anticipate which will be the health profile of the Spanish old population in some years. In the case of aggregated health outcomes of contemporary populations, we know that 50% of their health profile is defined by the influence of social factors, the called social determinants of health[1] (SDH). This implies that investments in social factors might be more efficient in terms of the future health profile of populations. Starting from these premises, the analysis of SDH, which have been also defined as «causes of causes» of health inequalities[2], is absolutely necessary for the definition of innovative and efficient social policies from both social justice and optimization of public resources. This means that we must know as much as possible about the SDH not only of old Spaniards but also of current adults who will be the future elderly.
The project proposes to go further in the knowledge that we have about the link between health and SDH in Spain by considering different social factors from distinct levels (micro, mezzo, and macro). Although the main focus is on Spain, the European context is also in the frame of this project in order to contextualize the Spanish case within the continent.
Demographic variables have a key role for such a purpose because of their relationship with both health and contexts of social inequalities. Age and gender do not merely have a direct relationship with health because of biological factors but also have an indirect effect through the definition of the contextual factors as the life-course stage of individuals and gender inequalities levels in current societies. This is of special interest in the current context of an unstoppable population aging where having a deep knowledge about the link between health and complex social profiles could ease to anticipate the health profile of future old population as well as to take preventive measures.
Proyecto I+D+I INTERSOC-HEALTH 