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Structural Health Determinants

Meaning

The fundamental, often deeply embedded, societal and systemic factors that shape the health and well-being of populations, including policy, governance, social norms, and institutional practices, which create and maintain health inequities. These determinants establish the foundational context—such as food access, housing quality, and educational opportunities—that ultimately dictate individual physiological outcomes and hormonal health trajectories. They are the upstream causes of health disparities.