Social and Environmental Determinants of Health Across the Life Course: Implications for Healthcare Access, Delivery and Outcomes

Dear Colleagues,

Health is profoundly shaped by the social and environmental contexts in which people live throughout their lives. In addition to individual behaviours and biological factors, determinants such as education, income, employment, housing, neighbourhood conditions, social relationships, environmental exposures and access to supportive community environments can have lasting effects on physical and mental health, healthcare access, healthcare utilisation and health outcomes.

This Special Issue aims to advance understanding of these determinants from a life-course perspective, with particular attention to their implications for healthcare systems, service delivery, disease prevention and health inequities. We seek to identify the mechanisms through which social and environmental conditions influence the access to care, continuity of care, use of preventive and therapeutic services, effectiveness of healthcare interventions and measurable health outcomes across different stages of life.

We welcome high-quality contributions that examine the role of social and environmental determinants in shaping health and healthcare access from childhood and adolescence to adulthood and older age. We invite original research articles, systematic reviews, scoping reviews and policy-relevant papers using quantitative, qualitative or mixed-methods approaches; purely theoretical articles will not be accepted. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, social determinants of health; environmental determinants of health; healthcare access and utilisation; disease prevention and health promotion; neighbourhood and built environment influences; social participation and isolation; healthy ageing; life-course inequities and policy or system-level interventions aimed at improving healthcare and population health.

Submissions that offer clear implications for healthcare practice, service organisation, prevention strategies and public health policy—particularly those addressing health equity and measurable health outcomes—are especially encouraged.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Elena S. Rotarou
Dr. Ximena Moreno
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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