Boxall Anne-marie, Short Stephanie D
Australian Health Policy Institute, The University of Sydney, Ground Floor, Victor Coppleson Building-D02, NSW 2006, Australia.
Aust New Zealand Health Policy. 2006 Jun 1;3:6. doi: 10.1186/1743-8462-3-6.
It is accepted knowledge that social and economic conditions--like education and income--affect population health. What remains uncertain is whether the degree of inequality in these conditions influences population health and if so, how. Some researchers who argue that inequalities are important, say there is a relationship between political economy, inequality and population health. Their evidence comes from comparative studies showing that countries with neo-liberal political economies generally have poorer population health outcomes than those with social or Christian democratic political economies. According to these researchers, neo-liberal political economies adopt labour market and welfare state policies that lead to greater levels of inequality and poorer population health outcomes for us all.
Australia has experienced considerable social and economic reforms over the last 20 years, with both major political parties increasingly adopting neo-liberal policies. Despite these reforms, population health outcomes are amongst the best in the world.
Australia appears to contest theories suggesting a link between political economy and population health. To progress our understanding, researchers need to concentrate on policy areas outside health--such as welfare, economics and industrial relations. We need to do longitudinal studies on how reforms in these areas affect levels of social and economic inequality, as well population health. We need to draw on social scientific methods, especially concerning case selection, to advance our understanding of casual relationships in policy studies. It is important to find out if, and why, Australia has resisted the affects of neo-liberalism on population health so we ensure our high standards are maintained in the future.
社会和经济状况（如教育和收入）会影响人口健康，这是公认的事实。尚不确定的是这些状况的不平等程度是否会影响人口健康，如果会，又是如何影响的。一些认为不平等很重要的研究人员称，政治经济、不平等与人口健康之间存在关联。他们的证据来自比较研究，这些研究表明，实行新自由主义政治经济的国家总体上人口健康状况比实行社会或基督教民主政治经济的国家更差。据这些研究人员称，新自由主义政治经济采取的劳动力市场和福利国家政策导致了更大程度的不平等以及所有人更差的人口健康状况。
在过去20年里，澳大利亚经历了重大的社会和经济改革，两大主要政党都越来越多地采取新自由主义政策。尽管有这些改革，澳大利亚的人口健康状况却是世界上最好的之一。
澳大利亚似乎对那些认为政治经济与人口健康之间存在联系的理论提出了质疑。为了增进我们的理解，研究人员需要关注健康领域之外的政策领域，如福利、经济和劳资关系。我们需要对这些领域的改革如何影响社会和经济不平等程度以及人口健康进行纵向研究。我们需要借鉴社会科学方法，尤其是在案例选择方面，以增进我们对政策研究中因果关系的理解。弄清楚澳大利亚是否以及为何能够抵御新自由主义对人口健康的影响很重要，这样我们才能确保未来维持高标准。
