The Essence of Social Sciences in Global Public Health: An Introduction

Global health cannot be improved if researchers and public health practitioners only rely on a narrow biomedical view. Social scientists such as anthropologists have played a crucial role in keeping the West African Ebola epidemic under control by substituting precarious burial rituals with safer means, instead of recommending abandoning such rituals. Advances in mental health treatments will depend on having a good understanding of how individuals and societies see mental health issues and the treatments as well as the ways that social context influences the success of treatments. Based on the concept of new public health, it is argued that public health practice is situated within the context of broader social issues concerning the underlying social, economic, cultural, environmental, and political determinants of health and disease. This is the link between the social sciences and public health which is the focus of this handbook. This chapter sets the background for this handbook. It will discuss the valuable contribution of social sciences to global public health. Global public health researchers and practitioners would gain essential knowledge from engaging with social scientists. In particular, the chapter discusses issues relating to the social sciences, the relevance of social sciences to global public health, global health inequalities, and social determinants of health. The chapter also provides a brief description of this handbook.