Addressing Commercial Determinants of Health Begins with Clearer Definition and Measurement

In an editorial in Global Health Promotion, Kelley Lee and Nicholas Freudenberg call for a clearer and more precise definition of “commercial determinants of health” and new approaches to assessing its influence on the global distribution of health and diseases. Such an approach, they argue, will lead to better understanding of the complex pathways between commercial determinants of health and non-communicable diseases (NCDs), now the leading cause of the global burden of disease and a key driver of health inequities. It will also provide evidence that can expand public health interventions from their current focus on individual and behavioral risk factors to the systemic and structural influences on NCD prevalence and distribution.