Should health inequalities be addressed with healthy lifestyle promotion policies? An intersectional approach during and after crisis time

Abstract

Health inequalities caused by socioeconomic factors violate social justice principle. Therefore, policies in Public Health should try to eliminate them. Two main strategies aim to reduce health inequalities: the promotion of healthy lifestyles appealing to individuals (i) and the increasing of life standards for all the population (ii). Here I present why the former, broadly extended in West Europe under the lifestyle drift phenomenon, has severe limitations. In order to do so I will explore how socioeconomic determinants of health shape individual’s ability to adhere to healthy behaviours specially in the specific context that we are currently living (COVID-19 crisis) taking as a reference the Great Recession crisis of 2008.