Review of Current Research Describing the Influence of Social Determinants of Health in Rural and Urban Populations

Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the conditions of the environment where people live, learn, work, and play that are known to affect health outcomes. This brief summarizes recent literature on SDOH and health outcomes with a rural and urban contrast. It also identifies gaps in literature related to Healthy People 2030 economic, educational, environmental, and social objectives as applied to rural populations.

Overview of Key Findings:

• The domain of economic stability is the most studied with a rural-urban comparison.
• There is a sizable body of work examining how social determinants and rural-urban status influence certain public health concerns, including asthma, COVID-19, opioid injury/death, and maternal/infant mortality.
• While SDOH research is common, SDOH research that includes rural-urban comparisons is less common, leaving gaps in the literature to describe how rural/urban status can compound or mitigate the social drivers for health outcomes.