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Cited by 528Public Health and Social InequalitiesPublic Health Policies and EducationHealth disparities and outcomes

Meanings and misunderstandings: a social determinants of health Lexicon for health care systems

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ALDERWICK, HUGH, GOTTLIEB, LAURA M.·2019·The Milbank Quarterly
DOI 10.1111/1468-0009.12390PMC PMC6554506
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Abstract

Policy Points: Health care systems and policymakers in the United States increasingly use language related to social determinants of health in their strategies to improve health and control costs, but the terms used are often misunderstood, conflated, and confused. Greater clarity on key terms and the concepts underlying them could advance policies and practices related to social determinants of health—including by defining appropriate roles and limits of the health care sector in this multisector field.

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  • Other state and federal policies encourage both SDH screening and the use of structured documentation tools, which may provide computable forms of SDH data for clinical decision support and community resource referral tools.

    “Other state and federal policies encourage both SDH screening and the use of structured documentation tools, which may in turn provide computable forms of SDH data that could be used in clinical decision support algorithms and community resource referral tools.1,35,36”

    From Structured and unstructured social risk factor documentation in the electronic health record underestimates patients’ self-reported risks (2024) · cites this paper as [35]

    The Conclusion says federal and state initiatives have strengthened health care systems’ role in identifying and addressing patients’ social needs. The Social Needs-Informed Care and Social Needs-Targeted Care section also describes using screening data to inform clinical decisions and linking patients with social supports. Neither passage says these policies encourage structured documentation tools or that such tools produce computable data for decision-support algorithms and referral tools. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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Authors
ALDERWICK, H., & GOTTLIEB, L. M.
Affiliations
University of California, San Francisco (US)
Corresponding author
ALDERWICK, HUGH
ORCID
Venue
The Milbank Quarterly
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2019-05-08
Volume
97
Issue
2
Pages
407-419
ISSN
  • 0887-378X (ISSN-L)
  • 1468-0009
DOI
10.1111/1468-0009.12390
PMC
PMC6554506
OpenAlex
W2944807484
Cited by
528
References
6
Citations by year
2026: 73 · 2025: 94 · 2024: 90 · 2023: 97 · 2022: 71 · 2021: 49 · 2020: 45 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 1
FWCI
42.18
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
  • Milbank Quarterly (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Commonwealth Fund
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Health › Public Health and Social Inequalities
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Public Health Policies and Education
  • Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
Keywords
social determinants of health, health care system, terminology, health policy, health equity, health care costs
MeSH terms
Population Health, Delivery of Health Care, Health Policy, Policy Making, United States, Social Determinants of Health

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