Social Needs Screening Tool Comparison Table

The SIREN team compiles the content of several of the most widely used social health screening tools to facilitate comparisons. The table below summarizes characteristics for each tool, including information about the intended population or setting, total number of questions, social health domains covered, and domain-specific measures used. To view a specific screening tool in its entirety, click on the column heading. To compare questions used across different tools for the same domain (e.g. food security), click on the row heading. Scroll to the right to see the full table.

The table below includes screening tools either designed for older adults or that are not age-specific; click here to access a table comparing social needs screening tools developed specifically for pediatric settings.

A note on validity: Inclusion of a tool below does not necessarily mean that the tool or the questions contained therein has been “validated”. While some specific questions or tools have been studied,^1-4 validity has many different dimensions (e.g., criterion validity [predictive, convergent], construct [structural]), and none of the tools below has been vetted through all steps of gold standard measure development or had all types of validity assessed. You can find more information about validity studies done on different social risk screening tools by watching this webinar, reading this paper, or visiting the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute website on this topic. As we learn about new tool validation studies, we will add citations to the table below and the SIREN Evidence and Resource Library.

If you would like to suggest a tool for inclusion in this table, please contact us. For inquiries related to permissions or questions of a specific screening tool, please use the contact information listed in the table. 

Download the table (combining adult and pediatric tools) as an Excel file (last updated 9.6.24).