Understanding Dahlgren and Whitehead’s “Rainbow Model” of Health Determinants Health is not just about individual choices or genetics—it is deeply influenced by a broad range of social, economic, and environmental factors. The Dahlgren and Whitehead “Rainbow Model” (1991) provides a comprehensive framework to understand these determinants. It illustrates how multiple layers of influence shape an individual’s health, emphasizing that public health interventions must go beyond personal behavior to address wider social and structural factors. The Structure of the Rainbow Model The “Rainbow Model” is depicted as a series of concentric layers surrounding an individual, with each layer representing different levels…

Three weeks before, I had to unlearn my learning about Maslow’s pyramid; it is not his. He did not build it to explain his theory about human motivation; “Maslow did not build a pyramid to explain his theory”. I read about it for the first time in a Scientific American article. It was titled “Who Created Maslow’s iconic pyramid? and written by Scott Barry Kaufman”. Who built the pyramid? The pyramid was built into Maslow’s theory more than a decade later after Maslow’s initial introduction in 1943. Charles McDermid, a management expert, introduced the pyramid into Maslow’s theory. We can…

It is obvious. The prevalence of diabetes and high blood pressure varies by neighbourhood in Toronto. The following maps from Ontario Community Health Profile Partnership (OCHPP) website display this geographical disparity. The maps use a colour scale; the darker the area higher the rate. We can find a clear geographical gradient. It ranges from 4.4 per 100 (the lightest colour) to 19 per 100 individuals (the darkest colour) with regard to diabetes (Map 1). But the rates vary from 16 per 100 (the lightest colour) to 31.6 per 100 for high blood pressure (the darkest colour) (Map 2). Map 1:…

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases through these links at no extra cost to you. The Montreal Protocol (#MontrealProtocol) is an upstream intervention #ClimateAction classic. It is a powerful climate treaty. It directly impacted global public health. The Protocol’s 35-year-long legendary journey carries many lessons for the public health community who sail upstream. We can adapt and adopt many of its elements. This post attempts to surface out the key elements of this Montreal Protocol success story. Let us dive into its upstream journey. Background My journey begins with the Montreal Protocol’s…

Updated on September 20, 2024 I created the following asset map using the Google My Maps tool, which is free. My project was to create a map of the designated stroke centres in Ontario. These centres can remove a brain blood clot that results in a stroke. Strokes are medical emergencies. If a patient suspected of a stroke reaches those centres in time, surgeons can prevent/minimise permanent brain damage. Here are the steps I followed. Step 1: Data collection I created an Excel sheet of the designated stroke centres. I obtained the hospital names from this publicly available source: Cor…

Asset mapping strategy benefits health promoters, resource and patient care navigators. It helps us, Of course, it also helps us to identify gaps. Overall, the strategy helps us visualize a more realistic picture of our community. Asset mapping should be an integral part of social determinants of health projects. What do we mean by community assets? According to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, community assets include “anything that improves the quality of community life”. Community assets are “anything that improves the quality of community life”. UCLA Center for Health Policy Research We can group community assets in many…

Those who know public health know Prof. Irving Zola‘s “upstream vs downstream” parable. Irving Zola is a medical sociologist. His friend, John McKinlay, describes Zola’s parable in his 2019 article, “A case for re-focusing upstream: The political economy of illness”1. The “Upstream boat” sails through this upstream path. Following is the reproduction of the parable; ” I am standing by the shore of a swiftly flowing river, and I hear the cry of a drowning man. So, I jump into the river, put my arms around him, pull him to shore, and apply artificial respiration. When he begins to breathe,…

Above are the global conferences logos of the Ottawa Charter held in different cities since 1986. Since then, thirty years have passed. This post explores the Charter’s legendary 30-year-long journey travelling from city to city from Ottawa in 1986 to Shanghai in 2016. The Charter’s birth The Ottawa Charter‘s groundwork was laid in 1978 with the Declaration on Primary Health Care at Alma-Ata, Russia. What is health? The word, “health”, refers to complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity as articulated in 1948. Writing an editorial to the Health Promotion International on behalf…

Updated December 28, 2022. Paulo Freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed has influenced adult learning and social change movements remarkably; although he published it in 1968, its influence has not waned over the years. It is, in fact, a classic masterpiece of community change. Paulo Freire (1927-1997) was a Brazilian educationist. Originally, the book came out in Spanish. His work with Chilean peasants had become very helpful for his research and to develop his adult education theories. We can find those theories in this book. You can read and download its 30th-anniversary edition through this link; https://envs.ucsc.edu/internships/internship-readings/freire-pedagogy-of-the-oppressed.pdf A review of the…