Healthy People 2020 and Social Determinants of Health: Eliminating Barriers to and Improving Social Determinants of Health

In 2010, HHS launched Healthy People 2020 (HP2020), the fourth iteration of the Healthy People initiative, the mation's disease prevention and health promotion goals.  Unlike previous iterations of the Healthy People initiative, HP2020 embraces a Health in All Policies (HiAP), specifically in its Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) topic area. HP2020’s SDOH topic area establishes five (5) domains: Neighborhood and the Built Environment; Education; Economic Stability; Health and Health Care; and Social and Community Context.  The social factors and physical conditions in the environment in which people are born, live, learn, work, play and age affect their health status, ability to function, and quality of life. HP2020 recognizes the direct relationships between social determinants of health and health outcomes and disparities and the value of Health in All Policies to achieving the disease prevention and health promotion targets set forth in HP2020.  Placing a targeted emphasis on the social determinants of health (SDOH), HP2020 highlights a social determinants perspective by providing a clearly articulated overarching goal “to create social and physical environments that promote good health for all,” establishing a topic area dedicated to SDOH, and identifying a practical HP2020 framework for SDOH using five key domains.During this oral session, participants will be briefed on: efforts of HHS and its partners to improve the nation’s social determinants of health, including specific implementation examples; the Healthy People 2020 SDOH topic area’s framework and resource portal; and barriers to improving social determinants of health and how they are being overcome.