Mckeown and the idea that social conditions are fundamental causes of disease

B.G. Link and J.C. Phelan

American Journal of Public Health, 2002, vol. 92, issue 5, 730-732

Abstract: In an accompanying commentary, Colgrove indicates that McKeown's thesis - that dramatic reductions in mortality over the past 2 centuries were due to improved socioeconomic conditions rather than to medical or public health interventions - has been "overturned" and his theory "discredited." McKeown sought to explain a very prominent trend in population health and did so with a strong emphasis on the importance of basic social and economic conditions. If Colgrove is right about the McKeown thesis, social epidemiology is left with a gaping hole in its explanatory repertoire and a challenge to a cherished principle about the importance of social factors in health. We return to the trend McKeown focused upon - post-McKeown and post-Colgrove - to indicate how and why social conditions must continue to be seen as fundamental causes of disease.

Date: 2002
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:2002:92:5:730-732_9

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