Factors That Facilitate Addressing Social Determinants of Health Throughout Community-based Participatory Research Processes

Abstract

Background: Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is one approach to addressing health disparities. Considering social conditions that foster disparate health outcomes is a strength of CBPR studies that move beyond a more narrow focus on modifying individual health behaviors.

Objective: This article examines factors that facilitate addressing the social determinants of health (SDH) throughout a CBPR process.

Methods: Conducting an extensive literature review of relevant key terms and, subsequently, using purposeful snowball sampling, we identified ten CBPR partnerships that addressed SDH and conducted semistructured interviews followed by qualitative content analysis.

Results: We identified factors that facilitate addressing SDH, which include commitment to SDH, community partner activism/engagement, partnership maturity, and government/political support.

Conclusions: We present four lessons learned that can be useful to partnerships seeking to address health disparities at multiple ecological levels beyond individual-level change. We recommend that CBPR practitioners consider the role of SDH in CBPR studies involving health disparities.