Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) are factors that contribute to an individual’s medical and behavioral health outcomes and to predicting population health (e.g., socioeconomic status, food access, education, and opportunity for employment). While structural inequities and prejudices such as homophobia, ableism, and xenophobia have impacts on SDOH, racism has been proven to also have a direct and harmful impact on health.
There are six SDoH categories as named by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Each of the six categories has several sub-categories that provide more context.
Built Environment
- Building Design: Building materials, ventilation, lighting, spaces for physical activity, accessible spaces for elderly and disabled populations, and spaces for social interaction
- Community Design: Green and open space, access to food, transportation services and infrastructure, health care access, amenities, institutions, and community connectedness
- Environmental Exposures: Water quality, air quality, noise pollution, contaminated sites
Education
- Educational Experience: A person’s access to education, the quality of education, the school environment, the availability of resources within a school, and educational attainment
- Educational Outcomes: The impact education has on a person’s future economic security, social and psychological wellbeing, and health behaviors and knowledge
Employment
- Employment Status: Whether a person is employed or not
- Workplace Risk Factors: The working conditions of employment
- Work Organization: A job’s structure or design or an employer’s organizational or management practices
- Work-Related Resources: Earnings and additional benefits provided through employment
Housing
- Affordability and Stability: Whether a person can afford and sustain payments for housing
- Quality: The physical structure and living conditions of housing
- Homelessness: The condition of not having stable housing
Social Environment
- Societal Factors: Policies and programs
- Community Factors: Social capital, social and cultural norms, social isolation, and social exclusion
- Interpersonal Factors: Interpersonal relationships
- Individual Factors: People’s existing attitudes, beliefs, and existing knowledge as related to health
Violence
- Self-Directed Violence: Suicidal behavior and self-harm
- Interpersonal Violence: Violence that occurs between individuals like intimate partner violence, elder abuse, youth violence, child abuse and neglect, and community violence
- Collective Violence: Violence resulting from social, political, and economic factors