Addressing the Commercial Determinants of Health

Topic Description

Commercial activity can improve health by providing medicines, technologies, food, employment and other valuable products and services, but it can also contribute to disease and health inequalities. WHO defines the commercial determinants of health as private-sector activities that affect public health, positively or negatively, together with the political and economic systems and norms that enable them. These determinants include products and services, marketing practices, working conditions, environmental effects and activities such as lobbying, donations and misinformation. The challenge for governments is therefore not simply whether to engage business, but how to encourage health-promoting commercial activity while preventing commercial practices that harm health.