The Effects of Social Determinants on Health Equity: A Literature Review
Introduction
Health equity refers to social efforts geared towards providing equal opportunities for people to attain their full health potential. Despite the existence of a universal obligation to provide everyone equal rights and opportunities, health inequity in the world’s societies remains a problem. Social determinants of health refer to social factors such as economic stability, safe housing, education, and food and health care access, which influence health outcomes within a given population. Health inequity continues to manifest in a variety of health care delivery, utilization, costs, and access outcomes, and thus there is a need to promote equitable distribution of resources. Greater population wellness can only be achieved by reducing social inequities and enhancing health equity. This literature aims to establish how social determinants of health can promote health equity by reviewing social determinants implications on health equity outcomes. The review paper demonstrates that social elements profoundly impact health behavior concerning communities’ perceptions of vice versa. The paper also illuminates the key implications for public health practice relating to the literature reviewed.
Review of Literature
Significance of Social Determinants
Social determinants significantly impact individual and population health. The World Health Organization states that around 30 to 55 percent of all health there outcomes can be related to factors such as behavior and biological factors, while social and environmental factors account for over 60 percent (Kompani & Stavrova, 2020). Social determinants entail high relevance in and impacts on the health outcomes of disparities between individuals, neighborhoods, and groups within similar countries across the globe. Consequently, the significance of social determinants should be considered when planning health policies and interventions geared toward fostering patient population health outcomes. Social determinants entail several areas concerning the aging population; these elements might be related to the risk of adverse health care outcomes as well as poor quality of health care outcomes. Over the years, scholars have focused little attention on exploring social determinants concerning the health and care of the aging population. In this vein, regardless of the criticality of understanding and integrating social determinants within the health system of care, there is usually a lack of institutional good approaches to leverage social factor knowledge when planning and delivering care services (Mughal et al., 2020).
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Research indicates that social isolation drives contagion. Specifically, in the United States during the pandemic, people felt isolated and disconnected from each other because of social distancing mandates, with viral spread rates causing a social bonding deterioration. Viruses can infect even the most isolated individuals and social bonds between individuals can either foster or ferment viral spread. It is essential to point out that social isolation is a significant public health challenge to the population following its association with negative health outcomes, a contribution that points to the role of social influence on health. Consequently, there is an increasing focus on the nursing and health perspectives about social relationships in determining individual and underlying health of the patient populations (Dimianto et al., 2023). Research indicates that social factors contribute to health outcomes in two paramount mechanisms. First, social determinants might directly regulate allostatic load, plasticity, and vulnerability to emerging diseases and poor health outcomes in adverse situations (Kompani & Stavrova, 2020). Allostatic load refers to physiological wear labels connected with experience of stereotyped or stress events that undermine personal health outcomes.
Secondly, social determinants of health are related to cultural practices and behavior perspectives that impact personal or population health outcomes such as smoking behavior, diet, and exercise activities. In this vein, social factors supporting psychological well-being for stress arousal emanate in allostatic load and fears of susceptibility to health outcomes, thereby affecting health behavior, including require preventive care activities and seeking assistances (Kompani & Stavrova, 2020). Furthermore, stress and isolation would inhibit patient population well-being, thereby compromising health care outcomes. This discussion indicates that social disparities might directly play a dominant role in the propagation of contagious diseases and contribute to health behavior inconsistencies. Even though stress follows