Key facts
- Commercial determinants of health are the private sector activities that affect people’s health, directly or indirectly, positively or negatively.
- The private sector influences the social, physical and cultural environments through business actions and societal engagements; for example, supply chains, labour conditions, product design and packaging, research funding, lobbying, preference shaping and others.
- Commercial determinants of health impact a wide range of risk factors, including smoking, air pollution, alcohol use, obesity and physical inactivity, and health outcomes, such as noncommunicable diseases, communicable diseases and epidemics, injuries on roads and from weapons, violence, and mental health conditions.
- Commercial determinants of health affect everyone, but young people are especially at risk, and unhealthy commodities worsen pre-existing economic, social and racial inequities. Certain countries and regions, such as Small Island Developing States and low- and middle-income countries, face greater pressure from transnational actors.
- There are effective public health actions to respond to these determinants, which are key to building back better after COVID-19.
Overview
The social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, the systems put in place to deal with illness, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life. These forces and systems include economic policies and systems, development agendas, social norms, social policies and political systems. Social determinants of health matter because addressing them not only helps prevents illness, but also promotes healthy lives and societal equity.
Commercial determinants of health are a key social determinant, and refer to the conditions, actions and omissions by commercial actors that affect health. Commercial determinants arise in the context of the provision of goods or services for payment and include commercial activities, as well as the environment in which commerce takes place. They can have beneficial or detrimental impacts on health.
