Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Apr;101(S1):36-60.
doi: 10.1111/1468-0009.12641.

The Future of Social Determinants of Health: Looking Upstream to Structural Drivers

Tyson H Brown  1 , Patricia Homan  2
Affiliations

The Future of Social Determinants of Health: Looking Upstream to Structural Drivers

Tyson H Brown et al. Milbank Q. 2023 Apr.

Abstract

Policy Points Policies that redress oppressive social, economic, and political conditions are essential for improving population health and achieving health equity. Efforts to remedy structural oppression and its deleterious effects should account for its multilevel, multifaceted, interconnected, systemic, and intersectional nature. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services should facilitate the creation and maintenance of a national publicly available, user-friendly data infrastructure on contextual measures of structural oppression. Publicly funded research on social determinants of health should be mandated to (a) analyze health inequities in relation to relevant data on structural conditions and (b) deposit the data in the publicly available data repository.

Keywords: LGBT+ stigma; health equity; population health; racism; sexism; social determinants of health; structural oppression.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Thoits PA. Stress and health: major Findings and policy implications. J Health Soc Behav. 2010;51(1 suppl):S41‐S53. 10.1177/0022146510383499 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Pearlin LI. The sociological study of stress. J Health Soc Behav. 1989;30(3):241‐256. 10.2307/2136956 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Williams DR, Lawrence JA, Davis BA. Racism and health: evidence and needed research. Annu Rev Public Health. 2019;40(1):105‐125. 10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040218-043750 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Braveman P, Egerter S, Williams DR. The social determinants of health: coming of age. Annu Rev Public Health. 2011;32(1):381‐398. 10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031210-101218 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Song L, Pettis PJ, Chen Y, Goodson‐Miller M. Social cost and health: the downside of social relationships and social networks. J Health Soc Behav. 2021;62(3):371‐387. 10.1177/00221465211029353 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types