What Is Not Conceptualized Is Not Measured: Towards Healthier Societies; Comment on “How to Build Healthy Societies: A Thematic Analysis of Relevant Conceptual Frameworks”
Social and Behavioural Health Sciences Division, Institute of Health Policy, Management & Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Abstract
Global geopolitical conflicts, pandemics, the climate crisis or rising inequities within and between countries alongside other intersecting crises all impede the pursuit of healthier societies. This commentary highlights gaps in how framing and measurement approaches reflect narrower biomedical conceptualizations of health. These gaps also relate to whether and how power is analysed, and how interventions that contribute to the (re)building of healthier societies are designed, implemented and evaluated. Dominant measurement approaches in health that prioritize individual measurement of problems and solutions at the expense of whole-of-society intersectoral interventions, and their governance are among some of the reasons. More holistic and explicit measurement equity and well-being (as opposed of disease) are required. Theory-informed research that interrogates values, social norms and ideologies, power asymmetries and that centres the study of complex context-sensitive policy and program interventions should inform future inquiries.
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Articles in Press, Corrected Proof Available Online from 23 May 2026
Ruggiero, E. D. (2026). What Is Not Conceptualized Is Not Measured: Towards Healthier Societies; Comment on “How to Build Healthy Societies: A Thematic Analysis of Relevant Conceptual Frameworks”. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, (), -.
MLA
Ruggiero, E. D. . "What Is Not Conceptualized Is Not Measured: Towards Healthier Societies; Comment on “How to Build Healthy Societies: A Thematic Analysis of Relevant Conceptual Frameworks”", International Journal of Health Policy and Management, , , 2026, -.
HARVARD
Ruggiero, E. D. (2026). 'What Is Not Conceptualized Is Not Measured: Towards Healthier Societies; Comment on “How to Build Healthy Societies: A Thematic Analysis of Relevant Conceptual Frameworks”', International Journal of Health Policy and Management, (), pp. -.
CHICAGO
E. D. Ruggiero, "What Is Not Conceptualized Is Not Measured: Towards Healthier Societies; Comment on “How to Build Healthy Societies: A Thematic Analysis of Relevant Conceptual Frameworks”," International Journal of Health Policy and Management, (2026): -,
VANCOUVER
Ruggiero, E. D. What Is Not Conceptualized Is Not Measured: Towards Healthier Societies; Comment on “How to Build Healthy Societies: A Thematic Analysis of Relevant Conceptual Frameworks”. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 2026; (): -.
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