Suspended in 2025/26
HP405 Half Unit
Social Determinants of Health
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Dr Justin Parkhurst
Availability
This course is available on the MSc in Global Health Policy, MSc in Health Data Science, MSc in Health Policy, Planning and Financing, MSc in Health and International Development, MSc in International Health Policy and MSc in International Health Policy (Health Economics). This course is freely available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. It does not require permission. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
How to Apply
Priority for enrolment in Health Policy (HP) courses will be given to students from the Department of Health Policy, especially where the course is listed in their Programme Regulations.
Any remaining places will be offered to students from other departments who have HP courses listed in their Programme Regulations, and then on a first-come, first-served basis.
By submitting an application, you confirm that you meet any specified prerequisites.
Written statements will not be considered and will not affect your chances of being accepted onto a course.
Application opens: 10am on Thursday 25 September 2025
Do not apply before this time. Please make your selection as soon as possible once course selection opens.
Offers will be made by: 12pm (noon) on Monday 29 September 2025
For queries:
- Course content: Contact the Course Leader listed on the course guide.
- Application process: Email the Programmes Team at healthpolicy@lse.ac.uk
This course is a listed option on MSc's in the department of Health Policy and for the MSc in Health and International Development. The course will be capped and priority may be given to students in the Department of Health Policy or related MSc degrees as needed.
Course content
The course introduces the social determinants of health from a global perspective. Content will draw on low, middle, and high income country examples, (although a majority of material will come from middle and high income cases). The course begins by exploring the shift in focus from individual to population health, the link to social determinants, and methodological challenges. It then goes into specific social determinants and issues such as poverty, education, gender and the built environment. Specific health and intersectional issues are then introduced, before final lectures that consider the politics of policy responses dealing with social determinants. A set of 6 seminars compliment the lectures with the final seminar linked to assessment.
Teaching
14 hours of seminars and 15 hours of lectures in the Winter Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.
Formative assessment
Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the WT.
An outline or early draft of the term essay will be submitted in week 8 to allow feedback and guidance from teaching staff before final submission.
Indicative reading
Rose, Geoffrey. 2001. "Sick individuals and sick populations." International journal of epidemiology 30 (3):427-432.
WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health. 2008. Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health. Final report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health. Geneva: World Health Organization.
Birn, Anne-Emanuelle, Yogan Phillay, and Timothy H. Holtz. 2009. Textbook of international health: global health in a dynamic world. New York: Oxford University Press.
Sallis, James F, Neville Owen, and Edwin B Fisher. 2008. "Ecological models of health behavior." In Health behavior and health education: Theory, research, and practice, edited by Karen Glanz, Barbara K. Rimmer and K. Viswanath, 465-486. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons.
Subramanian, S. V., Paolo Belli, and Ichiro Kawachi. "The macroeconomic determinants of health." Annual review of public health 23.1 (2002): 287-302.
Assessment
Presentation (25%)
This component of assessment includes an element of group work.
Essay (75%, 3000 words)
25% of the grade will be based on small group presentations in the final seminars. 75% of the grade will be based on a term essay (3000 words) that requires them to address a key health concern facing a population in a specific country of interest from a social and political perspective. They will need to write a policy brief that reviews literature, considers policy responses in relation to critical conceptual approaches covered, and proposes potential approaches to the problem.
Key facts
Department: Health Policy
Course Study Period: Winter Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 16
Average class size 2024/25: 8
Controlled access 2024/25: YesCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Self-management
- Team working
- Problem solving
- Application of information skills
- Communication
- Application of numeracy skills
- Specialist skills