Age of Socialized Public Health

The 1970s and 1980s were regarded as economically and politically unstable decades worldwide. The dominance of biomedical science approach, without adequate focus on the community, led to the failure of many mass disease control campaigns. By 1970, developing countries and the international community at large had become increasingly aware that, despite 20 years of large foreign investments and top-down development efforts, the socioeconomic status of the people including their health status had not risen to the desired level.

Many countries especially those that had achieved independence in the late 1960s and 1970s, were still struggling for socioeconomic growth. While the New World economic order was being formulated, a new philosophy of public health development with principles of social justice and equity slowly evolved.

The initial ideas of social medicine or the social dimension of public health had emerged around the early twentieth century.

New knowledge about NCDs (Non-communicable diseases), such as cancer, diabetes, and tobacco-related diseases, became available in the late 1950s and 1960s.

The social and behavioral aspects of diseases were also recognized and many social interventions were proposed as part of health promotion.

Education systems, institutions considered public health to be the same as preventive and social medicine. Socialized health care had become the most reasonable, workable and acceptable approach. Virchow had stated during mid-1880s that medicine was a social science and politics was medicine on a large scale.

People became more aware of the social and economic determinants impacting health. empirical evidence was collected from both the developed and developing countries.

There were debates on the links between health and social, environmental, economic and political factors. There were many comments on the need to give a social and political dimension to international public health.

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