Addressing Social Determinants of Health Inequities: Learning From Doing

Abstract

In its 1988 landmark report and again in 2003 in an updated report,1,2 the Institute of Medicine defined public health as "what we as a society do to collectively assure the conditions in which people can be healthy." The literature describing the relationship between conditions needed for health and health outcomes is as old as the public health endeavor itself and continues to grow, now almost exponentially. That certain conditions commonly referred to as social determinants—including access to affordable healthy food, potable water, safe housing, and supportive social networks—are linked to health outcomes is something on which most of us . . .