SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH AND THE PRODUCTION OF CARE IN PUBLIC HEALTH: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

A broader understanding of the health-disease-care process is a central foundation of Public Health, recognizing that the Social Determinants of Health (SDH) directly influence the health outcomes of populations. This study aimed to discuss the SDH and their articulation with the production of care in public health, from an interdisciplinary and critical perspective. This is a theoretical essay based on recent studies addressing social inequalities, intersectionality, family vulnerability, bioethics, and practices in Primary Health Care. It is evident that factors such as income, education, gender, race, territory, and access to public policies structure unequal conditions of illness and access to care, especially in contexts marked by historical inequities. The incorporation of intersectionality broadens the analysis by demonstrating how social markers of difference operate in an articulated way, producing multiple vulnerabilities. It is highlighted that the production of care requires territorialized, comprehensive, and interdisciplinary practices, especially within the Family Health Strategy, strengthening comprehensiveness as a principle of the Unified Health System (SUS). It is concluded that the effectiveness of health actions depends on the adoption of critical, intersectoral approaches ethically committed to social justice, consolidating care as a relational and socially contextualized practice.