Structural Determinants of Health Resource Guide

Social determinants of health are the circumstances in which people are born, grow up, live, work, and age. This also includes the systems in place to offer health care and services to a community. These circumstances are in turn shaped by a wider set of forces: economics, social policies, and politics.

Healthy People provides science-based, 10-year national objectives for improving the health of all Americans. For 3 decades, Healthy People has established benchmarks and monitored progress over time in order to:

Encourage collaborations across communities and sectors.
Empower individuals toward making informed health decisions.
Measure the impact of prevention activities.

Closing the gap in a generation: Health equity through action on the social determinants of health
Social justice is a matter of life and death. It affects the way people live, their consequent chance of illness, and their risk of premature death. We watch in wonder as life expectancy and good health continue to increase in parts of the world and in alarm as they fail to improve in others.