THE NEXT PARADIGM SHIFT HOW TO

The commodification of all aspects of society further renders the health-enhancing or health-diminishing properties of any good or service largely inconsequential. 8 This pattern of policy preferences can be hostile to NCD prevention efforts targeted at reducing markets in highly profitable products (eg, tobacco, alcohol and ultra-processed food and beverages). Lencucha and Thow draw much needed attention to what has been referred to as global health’s neoliberal deep core which has subjected health policy “to the deployment and privileging of market-based policy responses, to commodification, privatisation, liberalisation of health and healthcare, and to the individualisation of risk and responsibility for health” (p. Why Neoliberalism Is Incoherent With a Structural Approach to NCD Prevention? The accompanying article from Lencucha and Thow lays out the argument that, “ontrary to the assumption that policy-makers in these sectors are wilfully aligned with commercial interests, this perspective illustrates that government officials are often bound up within historically structured patterns of thinking and doing that foreground economic interests over health considerations” (p. 517). While corporate influence over health policy environments is well-documented, 4- 6 the story is more complex. 3 One explanation for this drift has been the power of corporations to derail government measures that would reduce their profits.

THE NEXT PARADIGM SHIFT HOW TO

2 Yet, guiding documents for how to tackle NCDs frequently undergo lifestyle drift, where recognition of structural causes transforms into recommended actions targeted at individual behaviours and lifestyle choices.

Structural determinants of NCDs are widely acknowledged, such as the role of the private sector in regulation or the provision of a healthy living wage. 1 Maintaining status quo behavioural interventions targeting smoking, alcohol, diet and physical activity will leave us short of meeting Target 3.4 of the Sustainable Development Goals to reduce premature mortality from NCDs by one third by 2030.

In this commentary, we explore how shifting from a focus on material power to discursive power creates space to see the NCD agenda as a battle of economic ideas as well as dollars, and consequently the importance of public health engagement in the next vision for the economy.Įfforts to address the global burden of non-communicable disease (NCD) remain insufficient. The accompanying perspective article from Lencucha and Thow draws attention to neoliberalism in the NCD space and the way it has historically structured patterns of thinking and doing that foreground economic interests over health considerations. While the political influence that corporations wield stems in part from significant financial resources, it has also been enabled and magnified by what has been referred to as global health’s neoliberal deep core, which has subjected health policy to the individualisation of risk and responsibility and the privileging of market-based policy responses.

It is a well-documented fact that transnational corporations engaged in the production and distribution of health-harmful commodities have been able to steer policy approaches to address the associated burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

The next paradigm shift