During the bus drivers’ strike let’s remember that good transport, or its lack, helps to shape our health. It is one of the social determinants of health. 
The UK The Health Foundation’s new easy-to-read quick guide: “What makes us healthy?explains how your opportunity for health is influenced by factors other than health services and financial support. It helps to explain how, in our unequal society, South Africans don’t have the same opportunity. This is an introduction to the social determinants of health written by Natalie Lovell and Jo Bibby.
“So what causes heart disease? To some, the clear answer would be blocked arteries. But what causes those arteries to become blocked? Perhaps it’s the unhealthy food and drinks people consume, their lack of exercise, or their stress levels. And what, in turn, makes them feel stressed, shapes their opportunities to be active and determines their choices about what they eat and drink?”
“The answers lie in the circumstances in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age: the social determinants of health. These can enable individuals and societies to flourish, or not. These are the causes of the causes.”.
