Assessing Academic and Community Partner Knowledge and Behaviors Related to Social Determinants of Health and Health Outcomes

To better understand health disparities and develop approaches to promote health equity, the USF College of Public Health and the Florida Health Equity Research Institute sought to explore academic and community partner knowledge and behaviors related to social determinants of health and health outcomes.

Masters and doctoral public health students participated in the design, testing and analysis of a Health Equity survey. Reliability testing of survey questions was performed, and the overall project impact was assessed.  Surveys were administered incrementally to four segmented audiences, including the students, staff and faculty of the USF College of Public Health, the broader USF Health (Colleges of Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy), the USF-Tampa campus, and the Tampa Bay community.

Students’, faculty’s and staff’s knowledge of the meaning, sentiment and actionable next steps for impacting social determinants of health and various health outcomes were measured. Curricular changes, incorporating more didactic instruction on social determinants of health and health equity, within the USF Health coursework are being explored as a result of the health equity survey findings.  A USF-Tampa campus wide social marketing campaign is being developed to elicit a conversation about ways to engage academia and community in health equity initiatives.

To effectively educate and empower academic and community groups about social determinants of health and health outcomes, partnerships, capacity-building, training and policy change are needed.  Academic institutions are uniquely positioned to equip current and future (health) professionals with knowledge, skills and opportunities to participate in this process of incorporating “health in all policies”.