Social Drivers of Health

The Social Drivers of Health (SDoH)—known previously as the social determinants of health— 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 (QOL) outcomes. The language shift to “drivers of health” is intentional, as “determinants” has a fatalistic tone and implies that little can be done to change the trajectory of one's health.

This website is broken into three categories: background knowledge, assessment, and intervention.

The Background Information section lists a few resources to help define and contextualize the SDoH.

The Assessment Resources will help with determining the level of need at the individual or community-level. Intervention resources are intended to help meet specified needs at the individual-level (e.g. finding local communities to help with rent money, acquiring food, or buying school supplies).

The Resource Guide linked below is intended to support physical therapists and physical therapist assistants in providing excellent care for all patients.