Social determinants of health are the non-medical factors that influence health outcomes — including income, education, housing, employment, and access to healthcare. These factors often explain health disparities between different groups more than individual lifestyle choices alone; someone with stable housing, secure income and easy healthcare access typically has more capacity to maintain good health than someone facing insecurity in these areas, regardless of personal effort.
Example
Two people with identical knowledge about healthy eating may have very different outcomes if one has easy, affordable access to fresh food and safe places to exercise, while the other lives in an area with limited grocery options and no safe walking paths — a difference driven by social determinants, not knowledge or willpower.
Key terms
Social determinants of health:
Non-medical factors like income, education and housing that influence health.
Health disparity:
A difference in health outcomes between different groups of people.
Health equity:
The principle of everyone having fair opportunity to achieve good health.
Questions
1. Social determinants of health are:
Non-medical factors influencing health outcomes
Only genetic factors, with nothing else involved
A single medical diagnosis
Completely unrelated to a person's health
2. Examples of social determinants include:
Income, education and housing
Only a person's blood type
Only medication history
Nothing measurable at all
3. A health disparity is:
A difference in health outcomes between different groups
A term meaning everyone has identical health outcomes
A type of medical treatment
Something unrelated to health outcomes
4. Health equity means:
Everyone having fair opportunity to achieve good health
Everyone receiving the exact same medical treatment regardless of need
Ignoring differences in health outcomes entirely
A term unrelated to fairness
5. Social determinants of health can explain differences in health outcomes:
More than individual lifestyle choices alone
Never; only individual choices matter
Only in extremely rare cases
Only for people over the age of 65
6. Access to affordable, fresh food is an example of a factor affecting:
Social determinants of health
Only a person's personal taste, with no health connection
Nothing related to health at all
Only genetics
7. Stable housing can affect a person's capacity to:
Maintain good health
Have no effect on health whatsoever
Automatically guarantee poor health
Only affect their income, with no health connection
8. Why might two people with identical health knowledge still experience very different health outcomes?
Differences in access to resources like affordable food, safe environments or healthcare can shape outcomes beyond knowledge alone
Health knowledge is always the only factor that determines health outcomes
Everyone always has identical access to the same resources and environments
Health outcomes are entirely random and unrelated to any external factor
9. Why might unstable or insecure housing negatively affect a person's overall health?
Housing instability can create chronic stress and make it harder to access consistent healthcare or maintain routines
Housing situation has no measurable connection to physical or mental health
Unstable housing always has a completely neutral effect on health
Only income, and no other factor, ever affects a person's health
10. Why might education level be considered a social determinant of health, not just an economic factor?
Education can influence health literacy, employment opportunities and access to resources that support wellbeing
Education has no connection whatsoever to health outcomes
Health literacy is entirely unrelated to a person's level of education
Education only ever affects a person's income, with no other influence
11. Why is understanding social determinants important for designing effective public health policy?
Addressing root causes like housing or income insecurity can be more effective than focusing on individual behaviour alone
Public health policy should only ever focus on individual behaviour change
Social determinants have no relevance to how public health policy should be designed
Root causes of poor health are always purely medical, never social or economic
12. Why might someone facing job insecurity experience greater stress-related health impacts than someone in stable employment?
Chronic uncertainty about income and stability can contribute to sustained stress, which affects both mental and physical health
Employment status has no connection to stress or health outcomes
Job insecurity always has a completely neutral effect on wellbeing
Only physical hazards at work, never job insecurity, ever affect health
13. Why might addressing social determinants of health require cooperation between sectors beyond just healthcare (like housing and education policy)?
Since these determinants span multiple areas of life, meaningful change often requires coordinated action across different sectors
Only the healthcare sector has any role to play in addressing health outcomes
Housing and education policy have no meaningful connection to public health
Cross-sector cooperation is never necessary to improve population health
14. Why might health disparities between different socioeconomic groups persist even in countries with universal healthcare access?
Access to medical care alone doesn't address other determinants like housing, income and education that also shape health
Universal healthcare always completely eliminates every health disparity immediately
Socioeconomic factors have no bearing on health once medical care is accessible
Health disparities never exist in any country with universal healthcare
15. Why might early childhood social determinants (like access to early education) have effects on health that persist into adulthood?
Early experiences and opportunities can shape long-term outcomes in education, employment and health-related habits
Early childhood circumstances have no lasting connection to adult health outcomes
Only events in adulthood can ever influence a person's long-term health
Access to early education has no relationship to future health or opportunity
16. Why is health equity distinct from health equality (treating everyone identically)?
Equity accounts for different starting points and needs, aiming for fair opportunity rather than identical treatment regardless of circumstance
Health equity and equality always mean exactly the same thing
Equal treatment for everyone always automatically produces equal health outcomes
Fairness in health has no connection to differing individual circumstances
17. Reliable access to public transport can influence health by affecting a person's ability to:
Reach medical appointments, work and healthy food options
Change their genetics
Alter their date of birth
Something entirely unrelated to health
18. A person's postcode being linked to differing average health outcomes is often used as evidence for the influence of:
Social determinants of health
Only genetic differences between individuals
Random chance, unrelated to any social factor
A factor with no real-world basis
19. Why might addressing social determinants of health be considered a more preventative approach than treating illness after it occurs?
Improving underlying conditions like housing and income security can reduce the likelihood of health problems arising in the first place
Preventative approaches are always less effective than treating illness after it occurs
Social determinants have no connection to preventing future health problems
Treating illness after it occurs is always the only viable public health approach
20. Why might researchers studying health disparities need to consider multiple social determinants together, rather than just one factor in isolation?
Determinants like income, education and housing often interact and compound each other's effects on health
Only one single determinant ever has any real influence on health outcomes
Considering multiple factors together always produces a less accurate picture
Social determinants of health never interact with or influence one another
21. Why might a public health campaign focused only on encouraging individuals to "eat healthier" have limited impact without also addressing food access?
Advice alone doesn't change whether affordable, healthy food is actually available to someone in their local area
Encouraging healthier eating always works equally well regardless of food access
Food access has no bearing on whether public health advice is effective
Individual behaviour is always the only meaningful factor in health outcomes
Answer key (parent copy)
1. Non-medical factors influencing health outcomes
2. Income, education and housing
3. A difference in health outcomes between different groups
4. Everyone having fair opportunity to achieve good health
5. More than individual lifestyle choices alone
6. Social determinants of health
7. Maintain good health
8. Differences in access to resources like affordable food, safe environments or healthcare can shape outcomes beyond knowledge alone
9. Housing instability can create chronic stress and make it harder to access consistent healthcare or maintain routines
10. Education can influence health literacy, employment opportunities and access to resources that support wellbeing
11. Addressing root causes like housing or income insecurity can be more effective than focusing on individual behaviour alone
12. Chronic uncertainty about income and stability can contribute to sustained stress, which affects both mental and physical health
13. Since these determinants span multiple areas of life, meaningful change often requires coordinated action across different sectors
14. Access to medical care alone doesn't address other determinants like housing, income and education that also shape health
15. Early experiences and opportunities can shape long-term outcomes in education, employment and health-related habits
16. Equity accounts for different starting points and needs, aiming for fair opportunity rather than identical treatment regardless of circumstance
17. Reach medical appointments, work and healthy food options
18. Social determinants of health
19. Improving underlying conditions like housing and income security can reduce the likelihood of health problems arising in the first place
20. Determinants like income, education and housing often interact and compound each other's effects on health
21. Advice alone doesn't change whether affordable, healthy food is actually available to someone in their local area