Social determinants of health database (beta version)

These files contain the beta version of AHRQ’s database on Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), which was created under a project funded by the Patient Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) Trust Fund. The purpose of this project is to create easy to use, easily linkable SDOH-focused data to use in PCOR research, inform approaches to address emerging health issues, and ultimately contribute to improved health outcomes.

These SDOH beta data files are curated from existing Federal datasets and other publicly available data sources. The purpose of the files is to make it easier to find a range of well documented, readily linkable SDOH variables across domains without having to access multiple source files, facilitating SDOH research and analysis.

Variables in the files correspond to five key SDOH domains: social context (e.g., age, race/ethnicity, veteran status), economic context (e.g., income, unemployment rate), education, physical infrastructure (e.g, housing, crime, transportation), and healthcare context (e.g., health insurance). The files can be linked to other data by geography (county and zip code). The database includes two documentation files and two types of publicly available data files.