Community-Based Participatory Research: A Promising Approach to Address Social Determinants of Health

Abstract

Social determinants of health are understood to be largely responsible for health inequities worldwide – between and within regions, countries, cities, towns, neighborhoods, and communities. Actions on social determinants of health for health equity should take a multipronged approach with a significant emphasis on multilateral, intersectoral collaboration and community engagement. While we are in dire need for making immediate collaborative efforts at health systems and public policy levels to eliminate the health equity gap caused by social determi- nants of health, community-based participatory research (CBPR) is recognized internationally as a strategy to address social determinants of health with bottom- up, partnership-building, and capacity-building action approaches. This chapter discusses CBPR as a promising approach to address social determinants of health and issues associated with CBPR applications in Asian contexts.