Part of the UMH Lecture Series
With about a quarter of mortality in Europe attributed to only the tobacco, alcohol, fossil fuel, and ultra-processed food industries, it’s hard to ignore the massive health impact of commercial actors. This influence expands further when we consider industries like gambling, chemical, pornography, (social) media, consulting, health care, pharmaceutical, opioid, outsourcing, and personal financial.
A 2023 Lancet series, an Oxford textbook, and a WHO report define the Commercial Determinants of Health as the “systems, practices and pathways through which commercial actors impact health and equity”. An emerging literature now investigates these drivers and behaviors of health-harming industries in political, cultural, social, economic, financial, and occupational arenas.
Luc Hagenaars, an assistant professor at Amsterdam UMCs department of public and occupational health who has found his disciplinary home in this interdisciplinary field, will take us on a tour of the financial, commercial, and political Venn diagram shaping today’s public health problems. Luc will explore how exploiting health is not just a great business model but one whose very logic may ultimately drive positive systemic change.
Luc Hagenaars, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Amsterdam University Medical Centre department of Public and Occupational Health, a senior Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice, and formerly affiliated with the Dutch Ministry of Health. Hagenaars combines systems science methodology and applied policy process theory to examine the commercial determinants of health – how commercial actors harm or promote health through their actions in political, cultural, social, economic, financial, and occupational arenas. His research includes, for instance, studies of how soda taxes came about, the entrenchment of ‘pouring rights contracts’ between universities and beverage companies (forthcoming), conflicts of interest in scientific research, systems approaches to getting unstuck with obesity prevention, and meta-studies of the commercial determinants of health field.
| 16:00 | Presentation |
| 16:30 | Q&A |
If you wish to attend this lecture online, please send an email to assistent.umh@amsterdamumc.nl.