Achieving Health Equity in Hypertension Management Through Addressing the Social Determinants of Health

Abstract

Purpose of Review: The goals of this paper were to examine recent literature on the social determinants of health as they relate to hypertension and cardiovascular disease, and discuss relevance to the practice of emergency medicine. Recent Findings: Social determinants of health, defined by the World Health Organization as “the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age” (https://www.who.int/social_determinants/thecommission/en/) play a complex role in the development of hypertension and cardiovascular disease and the persistence of racial disparities in related health outcomes. Deciphering the independent association between minority status and social determinants in the United States is challenging. As a result, much of the recent interventional work has targeted populations by race or ethnicity in order to address these disparities. Summary: There is opportunity to expand the work on social determinants of health and hypertension. This includes exploring innovative approaches to identifying at-need individuals and breaking down traditional siloes to develop multidimensional interventions. New funding and payment mechanisms will allow for providers and health systems to identify and target modifiable social determinants of health at the level of the individual patient to improve outcomes.