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Key research themes
1. How do corporate power and wealth distribution in unhealthy commodity markets affect public health and equity?
This research area investigates the structural market mechanisms through which dominant corporations in unhealthy commodity industries, such as soft drinks, shape health outcomes and inequities beyond direct consumption effects. It focuses on understanding market concentration, profit distribution, taxation, and corporate strategies that perpetuate health harms and social inequities. By interrogating corporate market power and wealth flows, these studies provide crucial insights into how economic dominance translates into public health challenges and inequities.
Key finding: Empirical analysis revealed that the two dominant global soft drink manufacturers (Coca-Cola and PepsiCo) exert significant market power manifested in high market concentration and extraordinary financial performance,... Read more
Key finding: The study synthesized 14 frameworks identifying 37 corporate practices that collectively constitute the mechanisms by which unhealthy commodity industries (UCIs) influence health at a national level. These include market... Read more
Key finding: The commentary documents how transnational alcohol corporations in Nigeria employ aggressive marketing and CSR tactics to reinforce hazardous drinking norms, especially among youth and marginalized groups, while benefiting... Read more
2. What methodologies and frameworks exist to systematically measure and monitor the commercial determinants of health at the population and governmental levels?
This theme addresses the development and application of conceptual frameworks, indices, and surveillance systems to quantify and track the influence of commercial actors on health outcomes. It highlights approaches that integrate multi-dimensional corporate practices, risk factor exposures, and their structural and agency-related impacts. Such methodological advances enable policymakers and public health practitioners to better assess, compare, and manage corporate health risks within and across nations.
Key finding: This paper advanced a novel measurement framework conceptualizing Commercial Determinants of Health as both agency- and structure-based exposures comprising six components (e.g., marketing, political influence, market... Read more
Key finding: The study identified and synthesized 14 existing frameworks covering diverse corporate practices influencing health, culminating in a consolidated heuristic model based on Lima and Galea’s 'vehicles of power'. It proposed an... Read more
Key finding: Applying an eleven-principle ethical framework to internal communications from Coca-Cola revealed systematic violations of core public health ethics such as transparency, evidence-informed action, and consumer sovereignty.... Read more
Key finding: Using discourse analysis, this study elucidated the divergent narratives and power dynamics between commercial actors, governments, academia, civil society, and international agencies regarding commercial determinants of... Read more
3. How do commercial determinants of health interact with policy, regulatory frameworks, and economic paradigms to influence health outcomes and public health interventions?
This theme explores the interplay between global economic systems, national policy environments, and corporate political activity in shaping the public health landscape. It examines how neoliberal economic policies, trade liberalization, and corporate lobbying affect regulatory capacities, health equity, and intervention success. Understanding these interactions is vital for designing effective public health strategies that address the systemic drivers of non-communicable diseases and other health harms linked to commercial sectors.
Key finding: The paper analyzed how tobacco, alcohol, and unhealthy food industries maintain substantial influence within economic sectors of government, perpetuated by neoliberal economic paradigms favoring market freedom over health... Read more
Key finding: This commentary expanded on documented tactics by 'Big' Food, Tobacco, and Alcohol industries—including litigation, lobbying, shaping research agendas, pre-empting regulation, and shifting public discourse towards personal... Read more
Key finding: The study proposed that global capitalism operates as a macro-societal determinant of health through transnational corporations, financialization, consumerism, and political-economic structures that shape health inequities.... Read more