Social Environment & Health Background

Health is the product of multiple levels of influence:

These include genetic and biologic processes, individual behaviors, and the context within which people live - the social environment. A multi-level approach to community health requires us to take into consideration, and act upon, social determinants.

Social determinants of health:

The social determinants of health are societal conditions that affect health and can potentially be altered by social and health policies and programs. Three broad categories of social determinants are social institutions - including cultural and religious institutions, economic systems, and political structures; surroundings - including neighborhoods, workplaces, towns, cities, and built environments; and social relationships - including position in social hierarchy, differential treatment of social groups, and social networks.

Conditions in the social environment can be measured, which offers a means to account for why communities with few social resources experience poorer health outcomes, and to suggest suitable intervention strategies.

These could include: affordable family housing, increasing neighborhood safety conditions, supporting children's healthy development and learning, or community development to increase economic opportunities.

The Task Force on Community Preventive Services has conducted systematic reviews of interventions that address social determinants of health disparities. These reviews show that interventions that increase the social resources of neighborhoods have a measurable impact on community health outcomes.