This lecture aims to understand the relationship between society and health with empirical evidence based on social epidemiology and behavioral economics. In the first half of the lecture, basic concepts and existing evidence of social epidemiology will be explained. Social epidemiology studies the distribution of disease and determinants of health, extending beyond individual factors such as genetics and health behaviors to the environment and society as a whole. In order to understand existing research, I will also explain methodologies for causal inference used in empirical studies. Various "social determinants of health" such as socioeconomic status and social capital will be discussed.
In the second half of the lecture, I will discuss the reasons why people do not behave in a healthy manner from a behavioral economics perspective. I will analyze people's decision-making process through the prospect theory and the model of intertemporal choice, and clarify how this affects health behavior. In addition, examples of interventions that apply the findings of behavioral economics, such as nudges and incentives, their advantages and disadvantages, and policy implementations to reduce population health disparities will be discussed.