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Paradigm shift required for population health improvement

R.M. Caron, S. Aytur
Popul Health Manag

A population's health status is affected by the physical environment (10%), health care system (20%), health behaviors (30%), and socioeconomic factors (40%). This information would indicate that most of the contributing factors to a population's health occur outside of the health care setting. The social determinants of health (SDoH), defined as those conditions in which people are born, live, work, play, and age, are influenced by social factors and are demonstrated to not only serve as contributing underlying causes to health conditions but to interact with each other in ways that warrant an interdisciplinary approach. Consequently, how do our health care systems improve the population's health when multiple SDoH influence the health conditions experienced by so many? Caron proposes that “Effectively answering this question will require an expansion of the traditional model of coproducing health to go beyond the services provided by the hospital to also include those services provided by the community.” We progress this proposal by contending that to improve the population's health, health care systems should partner with community social service organizations to be able to address health determinants via an interprofessional, collaborative, and policy approach that considers the dynamic health care landscape.

Caron RM, Aytur S. Paradigm Shift Required for Population Health Improvement. Popul Health Manag. 2020 Nov 11. doi: 10.1089/pop.2020.0259. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33179998.

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