✅ Reviewed for accuracy and relevance by Deanna Cooper Gillingham, RN, CCM, FCM on July 22, 2025.
Social drivers of health include social determinants of health (SDoH), health equity, and health disparities, which are interconnected and significantly impact health outcomes across populations.
Social determinants of health (SDoH) are non-medical factors that significantly influence health outcomes positively or negatively. They are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age, influenced by the distribution of money, power, and resources (WHO, 2025). SDoH factors include economic stability, access to quality healthcare, neighborhood and environmental factors, and social and community context (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2024).
Health equity refers to the fair and just opportunity to attain optimal health regardless of race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, geography, preferred language, or other factors that affect access to care and health outcomes (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2024). Promoting health equity includes ensuring equal access to resources, addressing SDoH, and removing obstacles to health, such as structural racism and discrimination.
Health disparities are experiences or situations that create a higher burden of illness, injury, disability, or mortality for one group relative to another due to healthcare inequities. Examples include little access to timely or appropriate healthcare services, low quality of healthcare encounters, or bias against certain benefit programs or insurance (CCMC Glossary of Terms, 2022).
This article shares a portion of the information covered on this topic in CCM Certification Made Easy, 4th Edition by Deanna Cooper Gillingham, RN, CCM, FCM (2025). For more details on this topic and related concepts, purchase your copy at CCMCertificationMadeEasy.com.
