Health is influenced by many factors, which may generally be organized into five broad categories known as determinants of health: genetics, behavior, environmental and physical influences, medical care and social factors. These five categories are interconnected.
The fifth category (social determinants of health) encompasses economic and social conditions that influence the health of people and communities.4 These conditions are shaped by socioeconomic position, which is the amount of money, power, and resources that people have, all of which are influenced by socioeconomic and political factors (e.g., policies, culture, and societal values).5,6 An individual’s socioeconomic position can be shaped by various factors such as their education, occupation, or income. All of these factors (social determinants) impact the health and well-being of people and the communities they interact with.
Several factors related to health outcomes are listed below.
- How a person develops during the first few years of life (early childhood development)
- How much education a person obtains and the quality of that education
- Being able to get and keep a job
- What kind of work a person does
- Having food or being able to get food (food security)
- Having access to health services and the quality of those services
- Living conditions such as housing status, public safety, clean water and pollution
- How much money a person earns (individual income and household income)
- Social norms and attitudes (discrimination, racism and distrust of government)
- Residential segregation (physical separation of races/ethnicities into different neighborhoods)
- Social support
- Language and literacy
- Incarceration
- Culture (general customs and beliefs of a particular group of people)
- Access to mass media and emerging technologies (cell phones, internet, and social media)
All of these factors are influenced by social circ*mstances. Of course, many of the factors in this list are also influenced by the other four determinants of health.
