Perspective: Acknowledging a Hierarchy of Social Needs in Diabetes Clinical Care and Prevention

Abstract

The evidence of suboptimal social determinants of health (SDoH) on poor health outcomes has resulted in widespread calls for research to identify ways to measure and address social needs to improve health outcomes and reduce disparities. While assessing SDoH has become increasingly important in diabetes care and prevention research, little guidance has been offered on how to address suboptimal determinants in diabetes-related clinical care, prevention efforts, medical education and research. Not surprisingly, many patients experience multiple social needs – some that are more urgent (housing) than others (transportation/resources), therefore the order in which these needs are addressed needs to be considered in the context of diabetes care/outcomes. Here we discuss how conceptualizing diabetes related health through the lens of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has potential to help prioritize individual social needs that should be addressed to improve outcomes in the context of population-level determinants in the communities where people live.

Keywords:

• social determinants of health
• diabetes
• clinical care
• clinical education

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by funding from the the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (Howell - 1K01 MD0172706). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agency supporting this work.