The first assignment for this module is 2500 words and is worth 60% of your module grade.

Assignment brief

please, choose a current health policy from your country, and consider the following steps:

Step 1: Briefly describe the policy and the health issue that the policy is designed to impact upon (include country, health context and the population group this policy aims to benefit). (approx. 500 words)

Step 2: Discuss the social determinants of health which are relevant to this health issue and this population, and explore how the identified social determinants are inter-related? (approx. 1000 words)

Step 3: Consider the trends associated with health inequalities and access to healthcare in this country, as a result of your policy being implemented. (approx. 500 words)

Step 4: Address how effective the policy has been in dealing with this health issue and the underlying social determinants of health and use evidence to support this. (approx. 500 words)

Please note that the word counts brackets are for guidance purposes only.

Assignment Guidance

Please ensure you provide a reference list at the end where you present all your references in Harvard format.

Departmental guidelines on preparation and submission of coursework

• Assignments      should be submitted in either MS Word or Open Office format unless stated      otherwise on the assignment submission page
• Use      standard margins: 1″ (2.5cm) on all sides.
• Use      standard Arial 12-point font size.
• Use      double-line spacing
• Pages      should be numbered consecutively

Please note, a word count penalty applies to this assessment.

If your assessment exceeds the word count limit or range by more than 10% then your awarded grade will be reduced by 10% grade points. For more information please see your

Not meeting the word count

There is no grade reduction applied if your assignment does not meet the word count range or limit, but to maximise your opportunity to achieve the highest grade possible, you should aim to meet the word count or range as closely as possible.

Learning outcomes

Completing this assignment will demonstrate that you have met the following learning outcomes:

• Appreciate      the interrelatedness of the social determinants of health
• Demonstrate      an understanding of trends and the extent of inequalities in health and access      to healthcare.
• Show      an appreciation of the impact of policy on the social determinants of      health

WHO (2019) Social Determinants of Health.

• This      link is to the WHO page on the social determinants of health, from where      you can link to a variety of specific topic areas. For example;      employment, social exclusion, women and gender equity and much more.

Marmot, M. & Wilkinson, R. (2006) Social determinants of health. 2nd ed.Oxford University Press.

• Chapter      3: Early Life
• Chapter      4: The Life Course

Damon, J. (2014) The Spirit Level. Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better. The Sociological Year 64(2): 469-479.

• This      article will appear in french, you simply need to click the translate      button on your web browser.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Global Burden of Disease Study. Healthdata.org.

Look specifically at the following areas: ‘about GBD’ and compare some of the country profiles so that you can see the different impacts of the social determinants of health globally.

Public Health England (2017) Global Burden of Disease – twenty years of ground-breaking health data.

WHO. (2019) About the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) project.

There are a number of WHO resources which are applicable to this unit:

WHO (2019);

• Health      Equity.
• Making      Fair Choices.

Duncan, P. & Jowit J. (2018) Is the NHS the world’s best healthcare system? The Guardian.

Edge, D. & Lemetyinen, H. (2019) Psychology across cultures: Challenges and opportunities. Psychology And Psychotherapy 92(2): 261–276.

Skolnik, R. L. (2019) Global health 101. 4th ed. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

• Chapter      6: an Introduction to Health Systems.

WHO. (2007) Everybody’s Business: Strengthening Health Systems to Improve Health Outcomes. WHO Framework for Action.

McPake, B. & Mills, A. (2000) What can we learn from international comparisons of health systems and health system reform? Bulletin of the World Health Organization 78(6): 811–820.

WHO (2019) World Report on Health Policy and Systems Research.

Schoen,C. et al (2004) What can we learn from international comparisons of health systems and health system reform? Health Affairs 26(1).

WHO (2018) Key Learning on Health in All Policies Implementation from Around the World Information Brochure.

Uneke, CJ. et al. (2019) Fostering access to and use of contextualised knowledge to support health policy-making: lessons from the Policy Information Platform in Nigeria. Health Research Policy And Systems 17(1):17-38.

WHO (1988) Adelaide Recommendations on Healthy Public Policy.

Adelaide Recommendations on Healthy Public Policy.

• Second      International Conference on Health Promotion, Adelaide, South Australia,      5-9 April 1988.

Schmets, G., Rajan, D. & Kadandale, S. (eds). (2016) Strategizing national health in the 21st century: a handbook. Geneva: World Health Organization.

Tobacco Control Laws. (2019) Legislation by Country, South Africa.

Smoke Free World (2019) State of Smoking in South Africa.

• YouTube      video.

WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic. (2019) Country profile: Greece.

Farmanova, E. et al. (2015) Combining Integration of Care and a Population Health Approach: A Scoping Review of Redesign Strategies and Interventions, and their Impact. International Journal Of Integrated Care 19(2): 1-25.