Social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age, and the wider economic, social, and political forces that shape those conditions. They include income and economic stability, education, employment, housing, neighborhood environment, social support, and access to h…
Social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age, and the wider economic, social, and political forces that shape those conditions. They include income and economic stability, education, employment, housing, neighborhood environment, social support, and access to health care, and they exert a powerful influence on the distribution of illness, mortality, and quality of life across populations. Unlike proximate biological causes, social determinants operate upstream, structuring exposure to risk and the resources available to protect and restore health, and they are a principal source of avoidable health inequities. Their effects are mediated through material deprivation, chronic stress, health behaviors, social cohesion, and differential access to and uptake of services. Research in this area examines inequities in the use of essential services such as hospital delivery, the social patterning of vaccine hesitancy and infectious disease, and the influence of social capital on the health of older people. It also addresses the role of discrimination and violence in mental health, community-based interventions for children, environmental vulnerability arising from climate change, and differences in chronic disease risk across groups. Characterizing social determinants requires linking individual outcomes to structural context and evaluating policies that act on the conditions of daily life. Addressing them is fundamental to improving population health and narrowing systematic disparities.
11 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.
The 11 articles above have been cited 7 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.
A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Social Determinants of Health, linking to each citing work.