Effects of Health Inequalities on Infant MortalityHealth and social policy assignmentIntroductionLongest (2002), the Health Policy Institute Director at the University of Pittsburgh in the United States, states that �Public policies are authoritative decisions made at the legislative, executive or judicial branches of government … (which are) … intended to direct or influence the action, behaviors, or decisions of others…� He continues, “When public policies pertain to or influence our pursuit of health … then … they become health policies.� (Longest, 2002). Longest vision of health policy is seen in United Kingdom as well as Europe in the same manner as “… view of public health activism that sees little distinction between health policy and public policy as a whole� (Randall, 2000, p. 8). Petersen and Lupton (1996, p.
