Social Determinants of Health

Social Determinants of Health

Social determinants of health are the non-clinical factors that impact the health prospects of individuals or populations. These factors are embedded in everyday features of life and are broadly categorized into six categories. These categories each refer to a class of social determinants that affect health outcomes in some way. The categories are access to economic opportunities, quality education, quality healthcare, access to suitable food and drinking water, neighborhood conditions, and social welfare conditions (Murray, 2018). These factors influence disease development patterns through their influence on the diet, lifestyle practices, hygiene, exposure to compromised environments, and access to health maintenance services. In addition, disease development depends significantly on genetic and environmental conditions. Therefore, social determinants of health contribute to the environmental aspects of disease development, and each person’s unique circumstances affect their risk of developing various categories of diseases.

The chain of infection is the series of steps through which infectious diseases are spread from host to host. It includes six steps that must all be fulfilled for the disease to spread. These six steps are linked to each other, and breaking any link between two of these steps stops the spread of infection. The first requirements for the spread of disease are an infectious agent, a reservoir, a portal of exit, a mode of transmission, a portal of entry, and a susceptible host. Community health nurses can break this chain by increasing awareness about the need for personal hygiene, personal protective equipment, and quarantine protocols to sever the link at different points along the chain (Schrank & Branch-Elliman, 2017). For instance, community health nurses can increase awareness about hand-washing and correct mask use in communities to break Covid-19’s chain of infection. In addition, community health nurses can best break this chain by increasing mass adherence to the appropriate prevention guidelines depending on the disease’s characteristics and mode of transmission.

References

Murray, T. A. (2018). Overview and summary: Addressing social determinants of health: Progress and opportunities.  The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(3). https://www.doi.org/10.3912/OJIN.Vol23No03ManOS

Schrank, G., & Branch-Elliman, W. (2017). Breaking the chain of infection in older adults: A review of risk factors and strategies for preventing device-related infections. Infectious Disease Clinics, 31(4), 649-671. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.idc.2017.07.004