Producing change to understand the social determinants of health: the promise of experiments for social epidemiology.

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Version: Final published version
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Serval ID
serval:BIB_088EAA1D445C
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Producing change to understand the social determinants of health: the promise of experiments for social epidemiology.
Journal
American journal of epidemiology
Author(s)
Berkman L.F., Avendano M., Courtin E.
ISSN
1476-6256 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
0002-9262
Publication state
Published
Issued date
09/08/2022
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article
Abstract
In this commentary invited for the 100th anniversary of AJE, we discuss the addition of randomized experiments, along with natural experiments that emulate randomized trials using observational data, as designs in the social epidemiologist's toolbox. These approaches transform the way we define and ask questions about social exposures. They compel us to ask questions about how well-defined interventions change a social exposure that might lead to changes in health. As such, experiments are of unique public health and policy significance. We argue that they are a powerful approach to advance our understanding of how well-defined changes in social exposures impact health, and how credible social policy reforms may be instrumental to address health inequalities. We focus on two research designs. The first is a 'pure' randomized controlled trial (RCT) in which the investigator defines and randomly assigns the intervention. The second one is a natural experiment, which exploits the fact that policies or interventions in the real world often involve an element of random assignment, emulating an RCT. To give the reader our bottom line, while acknowledging their limits, we continue to be very excited about the promise of RCTs and natural experiments to advance social epidemiology.
Keywords
social epidemiology, social experiments, social policy
Pubmed
Web of science
Funding(s)
Other / Medical Research Council
Create date
11/10/2022 15:08
Last modification date
10/10/2023 6:01
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