Policy Brief: Systems Thinking for Health

Chronic disease prevention, infectious disease pandemics (e.g., COVID-19) and the impacts of climate change are all examples of complex public health problems. Complex public health problems have multiple, layered and interconnected causes and outcomes.

Increased recognition of the social determinants of health reflects the growing understanding of complex public health problems. The social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live and age; and include the wider political systems, policies, agendas and norms, which shape the conditions of daily life. These determinants are the underlying causes of poor health, varying across time and accumulating throughout the life course.