Social Determinants of Health in Florida Counties
Eeshani Behara is a freshman high school student at American Heritage School in Delray Beach, Florida, United States.
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Abstract
Social determinants of health (SDoH) including economic stability, living conditions, healthcare access, and education, impact specific disease conditions and contribute to geographic disparities in health outcomes. This study investigates geographic disparities in health outcomes across Florida counties, by analyzing SDoH and outcomes at the county level in Florida. It uses the County Health Rankings data from the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. Statistical analysis indicated that there were significant changes in SDoH and health outcomes rankings across Florida counties between 2012 and 2016. Over this period about 46% of the counties showed improvement over time, 12% remained the same, while 42% showed worsening in health outcomes. Further, cluster analysis of 2016 data was used to classify Florida counties based on SDoH and health outcomes. This resulted in seven major county clusters. Health behaviors, social and economic factors, clinical care, and physical environment were the key SDoH areas for these clusters, which included specific SDoH such as adult smoking, access to healthy food, primary care physician ratio, and number of children in poverty. Based on these results, specific interventional approaches can be applied to each county or county cluster to reduce health disparities. This study shows how county data analysis can be used to drive specific localized interventional plans to reduce health disparities in similar areas of a State.