Social and economic conditions are acknowledged as having a major influence on human health, while the health status of the population stands as an indicator of a country’s development. The ability to understand and modulate this multidimensional and highly dynamic process is a deeply felt aspiration in modern society.

This book brings together the lectures that were given during the course on ‘Public Health Challenges at the Beginning of the New Century’, organised by the BBVA Foundation. Its twelve chapters look at the present situation and near-term prospects in public health. As well as discussing the social and economic determinants of health, with particular regard to the situation of developed versus developing countries, its contents range over such varied issues as ethics and public health, the health impact of environmental problems like exposure to pollutants and global climate change, and the choices that are posed by the phenomenon of population ageing.

Attention also goes to individual causes of mortality, as in the case of motor vehicle injuries or infections and human cancer. Finally, some reflections are made on how best to establish research priorities, and on the principal challenges facing public health institutions in today’s Europe.