Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences: Social Determinants of Health
What are Social Determinants of Health?
Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)
Social determinants of health (SDOH) are 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 (Healthy People 2030).
Five Domains of SDOH
SDOH are typically grouped into five domains:
- Economic Stability
- Education Access and Quality
- Health Care Access and Quality
- Neighborhood and Built Environment
- Social and Community Context
Getting Started
Stobierski, T. (2019). Common Social Determinants of Health and how to address them. Northeastern University
Burbage, S., & Levitt, J. (29 June 2021). Pharmacist role in addressing Social Determinants of Health during COVID-19. UNC CMM Telepharmacy Project.
Below you will find a variety of resource you can use to learn more about the Social Determinants of Health.
Social Determinants of Health at UB
Addressing SDOH at UB
- New UB institute to address health disparities in BuffaloThe launch of the Community Health Equity Research Institute
- Forward Thinking: Health DisparitiesDr. Timothy F. Murphy and Dr. Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. on health disparities for the 175th anniversary of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
- Department of Sociology and Criminology: Health and IllnessDiscover approaches to addressing SDOH from social sciences faculty
Open Web Resources
- Health Resources and Services AdministrationSearch the HRSA Resource Library for Social Determinants of Health or specific aspects of SDoH. The HRSA resources on SDOH aren't all that's available: look to the menu on the right-hand side for additional Rural Health resources and more.
Please note: This resource was taken down in early 2025. The link was updated to continue providing access to the content via the Wayback Machine. Availability of this resource and related content will be monitored and updated. - County Health Rankings & RoadmapsDiscover county-level health data from the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. This link starts you out at the Explore Your Snapshot page (a how-to). As a next step, check out PolicyMap under Specialty Databases.
Literature Highlights
Chinn, D. (2011). Critical health literacy: A review and critical analysis. Social Science & Medicine, 73(1), 60–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.04.004 UB Libraries Link
Foster, A. A., Daly, C. J., Logan, T., Logan, R., Jr, Jarvis, H., Croce, J., Jalal, Z., Trygstad, T., Bowers, D., Clark, B., Moore, S., & Jacobs, D. M. (2021). Addressing social determinants of health in community pharmacy: Innovative opportunities and practice models. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, 61(5), 48–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.japh.2021.04.022 UB Libraries Link
George, D. R., Snyder, B., Van Scoy, L. J., Brignone, E., Sinoway, L., Sauder, C., Murray, A., Gladden, R., Ramedani, S., Ernharth, A., Gupta, N., Saran, S., & Kraschnewski, J. (2021). Perceptions of diseases of despair by members of rural and urban high-prevalence communities: A qualitative study. JAMA Network Open, 4(7). doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.18134 UB Libraries Link
Holt-Lunstad, J. (2022). Social connection as a public health issue: The evidence and a systemic framework for prioritizing the "social" in social determinants of health [Review]. Annual Review of Public Health, 43, 193-213. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-052020-110732 UB Libraries Link
Kiles, T. M., Borja-Hart, N., Wofford, B. R., & Renfro, C. P. (2021). Screening for social determinants of health in community pharmacy: Identifying best practices, barriers, and strategies for success. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, 61(5), e59–e63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.japh.2021.05.004 UB Libraries Link
LaVeist, T. A., Perez-Stable, E. J., Richard, P., Anderson, A., Isaac, L. A., Santiago, R., Okoh, C., Breen, N., Farhat, T., Assenov, A., & Gaskin, D. J. (2023). The economic burden of racial, ethnic, and educational health inequities in the US [Review]. Journal of the American Medical Association, 329(19), 1682-1692. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2023.5965 UB Libraries Link
Park, J., Saha, S., Chee, B., Taylor, J., & Beach, M. C. (2021). Physician use of stigmatizing language in patient medical records. JAMA Network Open, 4(7). doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.17052 UB Libraries Link
Schickedanz, A., Hamity, C., Rogers, A., Sharp, A. L., & Jackson, A. (2019). Clinician experiences and attitudes regarding screening for Social Determinants of Health in a large integrated health system. Medical Care, 57(6), S197–S201. https://doi.org/10.1097/MLR.0000000000001051 UB Libraries Link
Shaver, J. (2022). The state of telehealth before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Primary Care, 49(4), 517-530. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pop.2022.04.002 UB Libraries Link
Thomeer, M. B., Moody, M. D., & Yahirun, J. (2023). Racial and ethnic disparities in mental health and mental health care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 10(2), 961-976. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-022-01284-9 UB Libraries Link
Vest, Grannis, S. J., Haut, D. P., Halverson, P. K., & Menachemi, N. (2017). Using structured and unstructured data to identify patients’ need for services that address the social determinants of health. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 107, 101–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2017.09.008 UB Libraries Link
SDOH Books
Research Literature Databases
- PubMed This link opens in a new window
- APA PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
- Global Health This link opens in a new window
- EMBASE via Elsevier This link opens in a new window
- Education Source This link opens in a new window
- Web of Science This link opens in a new window
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
- Social Work Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Specialty Databases
- Social Explorer This link opens in a new windowDemographic information about the United States including historical data back to 1790. More InfoData UB ONLY
Spotlight on Rural Health
Now expanded: check out the new Issue Spotlight page dedicated to Rural Health!