Analysing inequalities the tradition of socioeconomic public health research in Finland

Abstract

Starting from analyses of the world's oldest national population statistics, socioeconomic public health research in Finland matured by the end of the nineteenth century, which was the golden age of this research. Nationalistic intellectuals, i.e. the 'Fennomanics' investigated the socioeconomic backgrounds of the population's health and, in accordance with international models, proposed reforms to promote public health. Discontinuities emerged and research activities declined due to external social conflicts, that is the civil war in 1918, as well as the internal development of biomedicine. However, continuities can also be found as the socioeconomic health research survived through the differentiation of medical specialties in the 1920s and 1930s. Further developments took place with the emergence of modern social scientific health research from the 1930s onwards. The final breakthrough of the socioeconomic public health research in Finland took place as part of research for the welfare state performed since the beginning of the 1960s. In addition, the current expansion of research is based on national and international incentives. Nowadays, socioeconomic public health research is a diversified area incorporating social sciences as well as public health medicine. As the research has differentiated the agenda now includes new issues, such as gender, lifestyles, psychosocial aspects and professional interaction as well as analyses of the medical institutions.