The Effects of Public Policies on Health

Dear Colleagues,

Thoughtful public policies can significantly impact health outcomes by both addressing inequalities and promoting well-being. Of the various means by which public policies can affect human health, these are the most important:

• Reducing Health Inequalities: Public health policies can either exacerbate or alleviate health disparities. For instance, food subsidy programs and immunizations have been shown to reduce health inequalities.
• Welfare State and Social Determinants: By providing services such as education, health care, housing, and social insurance, a welfare state can mitigate the health effects of socio-economic disparities and significantly influence the social determinants of health.
• Infrastructure and Community Well-Being: Public policies directly impact critical infrastructure, including highways, schools, police forces, and flood control systems.
• Public Goods and Supportive Environments: Policies create, regulate, and maintain public goods that foster supportive environments for good health.
• Evidence-Based Policies: Evidence-based public health policies can prevent diseases and promote health.

In summary, the social, environmental, and commercial determinants of health exert a major impact on population health. Health in all policies, as well as whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches, are terms often used to describe the means of addressing the impact of public policies on health, in conjunction with what has been termed the “health impact assessment”, which is mostly used to assess the scale of the impact.

Given this background, this Special Issue of IJERPH aims to publish manuscripts addressing any of the aforementioned issues, with a focus on measurements of their effect on human health.

Dr. Gabriel Gulis
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• social determinants of health
• health in all policies
• whole-of-government approach
• whole-of-society approach
• population health
• health impact assessment
• health effects