What we say about…The commercial determinants of health
What are commercial determinants of health?
The commercial determinants of health are the systems, practices, and pathways through which organisations influence our health.
There are many positive commercial determinants of health, for example through the supply of essential goods, providing good working environments, and the development of innovative new products.
However, the activities of some industries, designed to sell products and increase profits, are escalating levels of avoidable ill-health, planetary damage and inequity – just four commercial products – tobacco, alcohol, ultra-processed foods (UPFs), and fossil fuels – are linked to approximately 19 million deaths worldwide each year.
A common ‘playbook’ of tactics, adopted from the tobacco industry, has been identified across a range of different health-harming industries (HHIs).
What tactics are being used?
- HHIs shape norms, ideas, beliefs and values in their own interest; framing public health problems and their role within possible solutions in favour of commercial shareholder interests.
- Corporate social responsibility is used to improve reputation, but often produces policy outcomes that work against public welfare.
- Aggressive, targeted marketing and advertising techniques are used to increase sales of their products.
Why should we mitigate the negative impacts?
- There is strong public support for a bolder approach to public health policy.
- Local economies suffer through lost productivity and health and care costs – for example, ill health and disease linked to the consumption of tobacco, alcohol, and unhealthy food costs the UK economy over £30 billion due to the wage penalty, unemployment and economic inactivity, and has led to an estimated 459, 000 people out of work.
What can be done?
- Population-level approaches to prevention are more cost effective at improving health outcomes than treating ill health and disease.
- Health taxes which increase the price of health harming products reduce the consumption of harmful products, but these policies should be protected from industry lobbying.
- HHIs should not be included as legitimate partners in the policymaking process.