Social Determinants of Health
Social determinants of health are the circumstances in which people are born, live and work in that influence their health status. This includes a person’s socioeconomic status, employment, education, friend/family support, neighborhood, housing, physical environment, and access to healthcare. Social determinants of health are very relevant to health conditions involving the nervous system. Some examples could be carpal tunnel syndrome, traumatic brain injury (TBI), spinal cord injury (SCI), stroke, etc. These conditions may be experienced as a result of a person’s social, behavioral and biobehavioral factors. Social factors could be income, education, culture, family/friend support. Behavioral factors might be diet, tobacco/alcohol use, physical activity, sexual practices, etc. Lastly, biobehavioral factors could be stress, psychological health, allostatic load, etc. For example, a person may have a stroke due to years of unhealthy behavioral choices. As Dr. Rishi Manchanda noted in ...