Social determinants of health: the how, who, and where screenings are occurring; a systematic review

ABSTRACT

Screening for social determinants of health allows health care teams to assess and address social factors that influence one’s health, mental health, and access to care. These social factors include poverty, health literacy, social support, exposure to trauma, food insecurity, and housing instability. The objective of this study was to examine what screening tools for social determinants of health are being used, in what contexts, and with what populations. Findings suggest that health literacy is the most commonly screened for, followed by trauma history, social support, food insecurity and housing across diverse contexts and populations. Results from this study can be used to inform providers of available screening tools and resources that can be readily utilized in practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Social determinants of health
• screening tools
• health care
• primary care
• interprofessional practice
• integrated care

Acknowledgments

Dr. Kyle O’Brien is the sole author of this manuscript. Dr. O’Brien would like to acknowledge the assistance of Joseph Cerniglia, MSW, who served as an independent screener for abstracts and reviewer for full text articles during the data collection process of this study.

Disclosure Statements

There are no financial interests or conflicts of interests related to this work. This manuscript has not been published elsewhere, and is not under consideration with another journal.

Additional information

Funding

There is no funding source for this study.