Skip Navigation Links
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
 CDC Home Search Health Topics A-Z

Preventing Chronic Disease: Public Health Research, Practice and Policy

View Current Issue
Issue Archive
Archivo de números en español








Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal
MMWR


 Home 

Volume 4: No. 3, July 2007

ESSAY
Changing Times: New Possibilities for Community Health and Well-Being

This figure illustrates the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) model of the multiple determinants of health. The model is represented by an inner circle and four outer circles. Within the innermost circle are

  • Innate individual traits: age, sex, race, and biological factors
  • The biology of disease

The first circle outside the center circle represents individual behavior; the next circle represents social, family, and community networks; the next circle represents living and working conditions; and the outermost circle represents broad social,a economic, cultural, health, and environmental conditionsb and policies at the global, national, state, and local levels. The figure includes a note defining living and working conditions as including the following:

  • Psychosocial factors
  • Employment status and occupational factors
  • Socioeconomic status (income, education, occupation)
  • The natural and built environmentsc
  • Public health services
  • Health care services

a. Social conditions include economic inequality, urbanization, mobility, cultural values, attitudes, and policies related to discrimination and intolerance on the basis of race, gender, and other differences.
b. Other conditions at the national level include major sociopolitical shifts such as recession, war, and governmental collapse.
c. The built environment includes transportation systems, water and sanitation systems, housing, and other dimensions of urban planning (6).

Figure. The IOM Model of the multiple determinants of health (6).

Return to article

 




 



The opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the authors’ affiliated institutions. Use of trade names is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by any of the groups named above.


 Home 

Privacy Policy | Accessibility

CDC Home | Search | Health Topics A-Z

This page last reviewed October 25, 2011

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
 HHS logoUnited States Department of
Health and Human Services