The Commercial Determinants of Health

An accessible multidisciplinary overview for anyone seeking to understand the commercial determinants of health Our health is largely shaped by the world around us—by the conditions in which we grow, work, and live. These conditions include the commercial determinants of health, the private sector activities which influence our physical and social environments, our available evidence and solutions, and even our discourse and understanding around key health and social issues. Until recently, commercial determinants have remained largely absent from our conceptual understanding of the drivers of health. The scale of their potential impact necessitates a multidisciplinary and intersectional approach, but no book has yet explored the commercial impacts on health in their totality. This pioneering volume sheds light on how commercial determinants shape health directly and indirectly through influencing policy, evidence, and discourse. Featuring original cross-sector research, The Commercial Determinants of Health draws on insights from a wide-ranging group of experts who introduce the commercial determinants of health and describe the proximal and distal pathways through which they affect population health. Each chapter further illustrates the health impact of commercial actors, including through multidisciplinary case studies ranging from tobacco to fossil fuels. Together, these essays seek to integrate new and emerging research across public health, economics, and policy to enrich our understanding and responses to the commercial determinants of health.

Nason Maani holds a Lectureship in Inequalities and Global Health Policy in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on the structural and commercial drivers of health inequalities. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Boston University School of Public Health. He previously was Assistant Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine as a member of the UK PRP SPECTRUM Consortium and co-founded the Commercial Determinants Research Group at LSHTM. He was a 2019-2020 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow in Healthcare Policy and Practice. Mark Petticrew is Professor of Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Director of the NIHR Public Health Policy Research Unit. His research has a focus on the commercial determinants of health and in particular, the influence of unhealthy commodity industries on health. He is a member of the UK PRP SPECTRUM Consortium which conducts research on the commercial determinants of health and other topics. His other research has examined alcohol advertising and marketing from a systems perspective and includes analyses of misinformation disseminated by alcohol industry corporate social responsibility bodies. He is a co-founder and member of the Commercial Determinants Research Group at LSHTM. Sandro Galea is Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health. He has been named an epidemiology innovator by Time, a top voice in healthcare by LinkedIn, and is one of the most cited social scientists in the world. His writing and work are featured regularly in national and global public media. A native of Malta, he has served as a field physician for Doctors Without Borders and has held academic positions at Columbia University, University of Michigan, and the New York Academy of Medicine.

Section 1: Why Commercial Determinants? Chapter 1: Commercial Determinants of Health: An Introduction Nason Maani, Mark Petticrew, and Sandro Galea Chapter 2: A Systems Perspective on the Pathways of Influence between CDOH and Health Cécile Knai and Natalie Savona Chapter 3: Global Health and Equity Burden of Commercial Determinants of Health Julia Anaf, Fran Baum, and Matt Fisher Section 2: How Do Commercial Determinants Shape Upstream Drivers of Health? Chapter 4: The Role of Policy in Studying the Commercial Determinants of Health Benjamin Hawkins Chapter 5: Understanding the Politics of the Commercial Determinants of Health Eduardo J. Gómez Chapter 6: The Role of Commercial Influences in Public Understanding of Harms, Causes and Solutions Mark Petticrew, Nason Maani, and May van Schalkwyk Chapter 7: The Role of Corporations in Influencing Culture Nancy Tomes Chapter 8: Industry Influence on Science: What Is Happening and What Can Be Done Alice Fabbri and Anna Gilmore Chapter 9: Role in Trade Deals and Investment Pepita Barlow and Eric Crosbie Section 3: Case Studies by Industry Chapter 10: Hidden from View: Alcohol Industry Efforts to Keep the Epidemic of Alcohol-Related Harm from Public Awareness Tim Stockwell and Erin Hobin Chapter 11: Learning from 70 Years of Tobacco Control: Winning the War and Not Just the Battles Anna B. Gilmore and Sarah Dance Chapter 12: The Fossil Fuel Industry: Fuelling Doubt and Navigating Contradiction May van Schalkwyk, Nason Maani, and Mark Petticrew Chapter 13: The Gambling Industry: Harmful Products, Predatory Practices and the Politics of Knowledge May van Schalkwyk and Rebecca Cassidy Chapter 14: Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Eric Crosbie, Laura Schmidt, Jim Krieger, and Marion Nestle Section 4: Cross-Industry Mechanisms Chapter 15: Marketing Simone Pettigrew and Alexandra Jones Chapter 16: Corporate Social Responsibility: Past, Present, and Future Nino Paichadze, Vinu Ilakkuvan, Muluken Gizaw, and Adnan A. Hyder Chapter 17: The Institutionalization of Corporate Power within Policy Gary Fooks Chapter 18: Corporations as Irresponsible Artificial People: Human Rights, Profits, and Public Health George J. Annas Chapter 19: Industry Influence on Research: A Cycle of Bias Lisa Bero Chapter 20: The Global Technology Sector as a Commercial Determinant of Health Nora Kenworthy, Katerini Tagmatarchi Storeng, and Marco Zenone Section 5: Advancing Science and Scholarship Chapter 21: Defining the Commercial Determinants of Health Jennifer Lacy-Nichols, Cassandra de Lacy-Vawdon, and Rob Moodie Chapter 22: Assessing Power Structures Joana Madureira Lima Chapter 23: Rethinking Conflict of Interest: From Individual to Structural Understandings Jeff Collin, Rob Ralston, and Sarah Hill Chapter 24: Assessing the Health Impacts of the Commercial Determinants of Health Luke N. Allen Chapter 25: Assessing the Economic Impacts of Corporations Martin McKee Chapter 26: Prioritizing Research on the Foundational Drivers of Corporate Policy Influence William H. Wiist Chapter 27: The Influence of Commercial Industries on Public Discourse Shona Hilton Chapter 28: Commercial Determinants of Health in Low- and Middle-Income Countries Salma M. Abdalla, Leona Ofei, Nason Maani, and Sandro Galea Section 6: A Way Forward Chapter 29: The Question of Industry Partnerships Peter J. Adams Chapter 30: Understanding and Managing Corporate Conflicts of Interest Katherine Cullerton and Martin White Chapter 31: Teaching the Commercial Determinants of Health Nicholas Freudenberg and Eric Crosbie Chapter 32: Learning from Experience: Identifying Key Intervention Points around Corporate Practices to Improve Health Mélissa Mialon, Julia Anaf, and Fran Baum Chapter 33: A Policy Agenda for the Commercial Determinants of Health Sally Casswell Chapter 34: Commercial Determinants of Health: A Research and Translational Agenda Nason Maani, Mark Petticrew, and Sandro Galea Index