Table 1 Commercial determinants of health: definitions
WHO definition of commercial determinants of health [1] • “Commercial determinants of health are the private sector activities that affect people’s health positively or negatively. • The private sector influences the social, physical and cultural environments through business actions and societal engagements; for example, supply chains, labour conditions, product design and packaging, research funding, lobbying, preference shaping and others. • Commercial determinants of health impact a wide range of health outcomes including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular health, cancer, road traffic injuries, mental health and malaria.” |
West and Marteau (2013): “Factors that influence health which stem from the profit motive” [19, 20]. |
Kickbusch et al. (2016): “Strategies and approaches used by the private sector to promote products and choices that are detrimental to health” [21]. |
Kosinska and Ostlin (2016): “A good or a service where there is an inherent tension between the commercial and the public health objective”, including where the public health imperative is to reduce use or consumption and the commercial imperative is to increase this, or, conversely, where the public health objective is to increase accessibility and affordability and the commercial objective is to reduce this [4, 22]. |
Lancet Commission on the Commercial Determinants of Health (2023): “The systems, practices and pathways through which commercial actors drive health and equity” [18] |