Social Determinants of Health
Guide to researching Social Determinants of Health (SDOH).
Learning Forums
- WHO Social Determinants of HealthInitiatives, news, events, and publications about SDOH from the World Health Organization (WHO).
- PhenX Social Determinants of Health AssessmentsPhenX SDOH Collection, available in the PhenX Toolkit, expands data protocols to help measure individual as well as structural factors that shape behaviors and health outcomes. By the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, NIH, U.S. DHHS.
- SDOH Toolkit and Learning Forum Sessions for the Health IT CommunityThe January 2025 archive.org copy of Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Information Exchange Toolkit is a practical, on-the-ground resource designed to aid the health IT community in the implementation of initiatives that recognize the importance of using SDOH information.
- Healthy People 2030 Priority Areas: SDOHResources from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
Interdisciplinary Research Guides
- Environmental JusticeGuide to Environmental Justice Research by Emily Keller, Political Science and Public Policy Librarian, UW Libraries.
Related: Environment Guides. - Ethnic & Multicultural StudiesGuide to Ethnic & Multicultural Studies Research by Dani Rowland, Research & Instruction Librarian, UW Bothell and Cascadia College, UW Libraries.
Related: Ethnic and Multicultural Studies Guides. - GeographyGuide to Geography by Kian Flynn, Geography & Global Studies Librarian, UW Libraries.
Related: Maps, Geospatial Data Resources - Disability StudiesGuide to Disability Studies by Matt Parsons, Geospatial Data and Maps Librarian, Subject Librarian for ESS, Atmos. Sci., and Disability Studies, UW Libraries.
Related: Political Sciences, Government, & Law Guides.
Reading
The following is a sampling of resources available on SDOH, there are many more quality resources beyond those listed here.
Select Books
- Economics of the Social Determinants of Health and Health Inequalities [Open Access PDF] by In response to the growing concern about equity issues and their implications for overall development WHO established the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) in 2005 which focused on the social justice or human rights arguments for health investments. CSDH investigated the factors involved in the so-called social gradient in health which refers to the large observable differences in health outcomes within and between countries that are determined by avoidable inequalities in the access to resources and power. CSDH aimed to further investigate the causes of health inequities with a deliberate detachment from economic considerations and provide advice on how to tackle them effectively. CSDH also reviewed evidence for action on a wider scope of interventions than CMH many of which require intersectoral collaboration or advocacy. With CMH and CSDH having adopted different but perhaps complementary standpoints it soon became clear that greater synergies had to be forged between the two. This WHO resource book on the economics of social determinants of health and health inequalities seeks to begin to build a bridge between the two approaches by explaining illustrating and discussing the economic arguments that could (and could not) be put forth to support the case for investing in the social determinants of health on average and in the reduction in socially determined health inequalities. The resource book has two main objectives: 1. to provide an overview and introduction into how economists would approach the assessment of the economic motivation to invest in the social determinants of health and socially determined health inequities including what the major challenges are in this assessment; 2. to illustrate the extent to which an economic argument can be made in favour of investment in three major social determinants of health areas: education social protection and urban development and infrastructure.Publication Date: 2013
Prescription for Inequality by ISBN: 9781440879272Publication Date: 2024-02-08This book explores how social determinants of health (SDH) impact the health of a variety of marginalized demographic groups in the United States. Chapters focus on the 13 groups that research demonstrates are most disadvantaged by SDH and, consequently, who suffer the most from ongoing health disparities in America. This includes Black and Hispanic individuals, the LGBTQIA+ community, women, the elderly, people with disabilities, veterans, and those living in rural areas, among others.
Select Journals
- International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health ServicesPeer-reviewed journal. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
- Social Determinants of Health [Open Access]Peer-reviewed journal. Tehran, Iran: Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences
Streaming Media
- Unnatural Causes: In Sickness and in Wealth57-minute video exploring the connections between healthy bodies, healthy bank accounts, and skin color. This video does not use the term SDOH; consider how you might find similar research that isn't findable with the search term SDOH.
- Stemming the U.S. health decline through decreasing inequality [YouTube]1-hour webinar on the decline in health in the U.S. by Dr. Stephen Bezruchka for Public Health Week 2023.