Abstract

Is medical care the only determinant of individual and population health? Of course not, but different opinions exist on this issue: supporting the relevance of the ‘inherited' conditions in which people are born, grow, live and work; or supporting the relevance of lifestyles and individual characteristics in determining social conditions, associated with health status. This essay offers an analysis of these different points of view, starting from the decennial debate in the scientific literature and from the related proposals, highlighting WHO positions and the influence of Amartya Sen's thinking.