Swimming ‘upstream’ to tackle the social determinants of health

"The authors conducted a cross-sectional study of a Health Leads intervention in two urban adult primary care practices. Social needs were identified and then addressed by advocates based in the practices. They found that 15% of patients seen had an unmet resource need, most commonly food insecurity or a health resource need such as difficulty obtaining health insurance or affording medications. Patients with unmet resource needs were less healthy, had more ‘no-show’ appointments, more emergency department visits and were less likely to meet care targets."

Swimming ‘upstream’ to tackle the social determinants of health
T Kiran, AD Pinto
BMJ Quality and Safety, 2016, 25:138-140

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