RESEARCH ARTICLE Canadian adolescent perc

The social determinants of health (SDH) consist of the structural drivers and daily life conditions that influence motion in Canada, there has been very little research examining the Canadian public’s perceptions of the SDH Kenney and Moore BMC Public Health 2013, 13:781 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/13/781health. In short, as expressed by Woodgate and Leach2Department of Public Health Sciences, Queen’s University, 28 Division Street, Kingston, ON K7L 4M7, Canadaa person’s health status [1-4]. The SDH include such factors as income and educational status, employment opportunities, housing conditions, social exclusion, ra-cism, and inequality. Evidence of the impact of such fac-tors on health, including mortality and morbidity, occurs at multiple levels of influence and through a multitude [5]. When conducted, studies usually focus on adults ra-ther than adolescents. Research investigating adolescent health knowledge has tended to focus on adolescent knowledge about risky health behaviours (e.g. tobacco and alcohol use, sedentary activity, poor nutrition, safe sexual practices) and not about their understandings of the SDH. Less is known about the behavioural factors that adolescents perceive significant to their health, and whether they even recognize the role of the SDH o