The United States Department of Health and Human Services defines social determinants [drivers] of health (SDOH)¹² as, “the conditions in the environments where 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.”¹³ SDOH are all around us: people commute to work each day via buses, cars, and bikes; schools prepare students to enter the workforce; safe and affordable housing provides the shelter needed for well-being. At the same time, many communities lack reliable public transportation, grocery stores in low-income neighborhoods sell cigarettes and candy instead of produce, and public schools try to do more with less as budgets shrink.

These types of issues may sound both unrelated and impossible to solve—especially by one organization—but in fact, they are deeply interconnected, representing just a few of the many social forces that lead to worse health outcomes. Addressing SDOH requires the efforts of more than just one organization; it requires multisector collaboration.

Related Resources

Improving Population Health Through Multisector Collaboration, a Population Health Innovation Lab (PHIL) research brief (2023)
Time to Transform: Adaptive Approaches for Population Health, a Population Health Innovation Lab (PHIL) and Northwest Center for Public Health Practice toolkit (2020)

View all references for the Data Walk.