Information from Institute for Healthcare Advancement's Organizational Systems & Policies Microbadge
Healthy People 2030 defines social determinants of health, or SDOH, as “the conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.”
People’s environments affect their health.
Examples of SDOH include:
Information from Institute for Healthcare Advancement's Organizational Systems & Policies Microbadge
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) definition: “Health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. This requires removing obstacles to health such as poverty, discrimination, and their consequences, including powerlessness and lack of access to good jobs with fair pay, quality education and housing, safe environments, and health care.”
Equality and equity aren’t the same thing. Achieving health equity means giving people what they need to be as healthy as possible, but different people need different things. And without health equity, we’re left with health disparities.
Information from Institute for Healthcare Advancement's Organizational Systems & Policies Microbadge
Healthy People 2030 lists health literacy under the SDOH domain of health care access and quality. People with lower health literacy are at higher risk for poor health outcomes, like more hospital stays and emergency room visits. SDOH affect health literacy, which in turn affects health. For example, people with low incomes and low education levels are likely to have low health literacy. This could mean that they’re more likely to have poor health outcomes.