Exploring the Social Determinants of Animal Health

Abstract

An understanding of the One Health and EcoHealth concepts by students is dependent on medical pedagogy and veterinary medical pedagogy having similarities that allow a common discourse. Medical pedagogy includes a focus on the social, political, and economic forces that affect human health, while this discourse is largely absent from veterinary medical pedagogy. There is, however, a gradient in health that human and animal populations experience. This health gradient in human populations, which runs from low to high according to the World Health Organization, is largely explained by “the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age.” 1 , 2 Regarding the human health gradient, other authors have broadened the list of conditions to include access to health care systems used to prevent disease and treat illness, and the distribution of power, money, and resources, which are shaped by social, economic, and political forces. 1 , 2 In human medicine, these conditions are collectively termed the social determinants of health (SDH). Veterinarians who work with the public encounter people and their animals at both the low and the high end of the health gradient. This article explores the concept of the parallel social determinants of animal health (SDAH) using examples within urban, rural, and remote communities in North America as well as abroad. We believe that in order to understand the One Health paradigm it is imperative that veterinary pedagogy include information on, and competence in, SDH and SDAH to ultimately achieve improvements in human, animal, and environmental health and wellbeing.