Q: What are social determinants of health?
A: Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the conditions under which people are born, grow, live, work, and age. Studies have shown only 20% of your health is determined by your health care, leaving the other 80% up to the environment in which you live.
The factors that strongly influence health outcomes include a person’s access to medical care, nutritious foods, clean water, housing and transportation. Factors like education, health literacy and job security also impact a person’s health.
Q: How are family physicians uniquely positioned to address health disparities and advance health equity?
A: Health equity is integral to the practice of family medicine. Family physicians are uniquely connected to their communities and witness firsthand the social and structural inequities in health and health care that disproportionately affect racial and ethnic minority communities.
With deep knowledge of communities and experience caring for diverse patient populations, family physicians play an important role in identifying and addressing health care disparities impacting minority populations.
Family physicians build long-term relationships with patients and have a holistic view of their health. This makes them uniquely positioned to provide proactive, preventive care that prioritizes long-term patient wellness. Family physicians promote health equity by considering the balance of social determinants that impact the health of an individual, family, community, population, and environment.
Q: How does the AAFP help family physicians advance health equity?
A: AAFP is actively working to equip members with tools to address health inequities and improve access to high-quality primary care for all. The AAFP created the Center for Diversity and Health Equity in 2017 to advance diversity in the family medicine workforce, advocate for health in all policies, increase awareness of social determinants of health, and promote health equity through collaboration with external organizations.
CDHE developed the EveryONE Project, which offers education and resources to help practices advocate for health equity, promote workforce diversity, and collaborate with other disciplines and organizations to reduce harmful health disparities. The AAFP also helped launch the Neighborhood Navigator, an easy-to-use online search engine to find supportive social services by zip code. It’s available to both patients and physicians in 107 languages and lists more than 40,000 social services.
To help inform the AAFP’s DEI work moving forward and to expand leadership opportunities for family physicians, the Board of Directors approved the formation of the Commission on Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness in Family Medicine, which will help guide the Academy’s recommendations, policies and work addressing disparities in care, health and the workforce.
A wide range of Continuing Medical Education (CME) products provide members with both foundational knowledge and the clinical skills to address health disparities at the point of care.
Q: How does the AAFP advocate for health equity?
A: The AAFP is committed to advocating for policies that promote health equity through identifying and incorporating social determinants of health in all health care delivery systems — with the goal of prioritizing preventive health and management of chronic conditions.
Family physicians can mitigate health inequity, including systemic racism, by collaborating with community stakeholders to affect positive change for the populations they serve.
The AAFP recognizes equity as a public health issue and prioritizes it in our advocacy efforts to ensure that health care is equitable, accessible, and affordable for all Americans. The AAFP supports a Health in All Policies approach to policymaking, investments in equitable and affordable access to comprehensive primary care, improvements in population health, and advancement of health equity.
