The Lamar Institute
We seek to take a data-driven and research-based approach to addressing public health in the social justice context. The social, political, and moral determinants of health are the frameworks we have adopted to conduct the research.
Social Determinants of Health
Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the social issues that define our health. We can predict how long a person will live based on various social issues like their zip code, race, sex, class, and other social characteristics.
Political Determinants of Health
Political determinants of health (PDOH) are the policies and political decisions that produce SDOH. SDOH are not accidental, in most cases, they are designed by the PDOH guiding the power structure and its systems.
Moral Determinants of Health
Moral determinants of health (MDOH) are the tenets of the moral code guiding PDOH producing SDOH. Addressing SDOH requires the foundational work of addressing MDOH. Public health is head and heart work.
Research
The Lamar Institute researches the social circumstances producing public health inequities, the political environments and decisions producing those social circumstances, and the moral codes of the various communities where the social circumstances exist. This is accomplished through research study design, data collection, analysis, reporting and interpretation.
Change
The point of conducting research is to inform the advocacy of our programs and any other organizations looking to take a data-driven, research-based approach to improving our systems and structures to reduce public health inequities.
