Social Determinants of Health
Closing the Gap with Health Accelerator Plans
The conditions in which we are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age—known as social determinants of health—have a profound impact on health. They influence the opportunities available to us to practice healthy behaviors, enhancing or limiting our ability to live healthy lives.
Differences in social determinants of health contribute to the stark and persistent chronic disease disparities among racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups, systematically limiting opportunities for members of some groups to be healthy. Chronic diseases such as heart disease and stroke, cancer, diabetes, and obesity are the leading causes of death and disability in the United States.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Closing the Gap with Social Determinants of Health Accelerator Plans grant funds 36 recipients to develop implementation-ready accelerator plans. The plans will help accelerate future actions in state, local, and tribal jurisdictions that prevent and reduce chronic diseases among people experiencing health disparities and inequities.
The plans will address at least two of the following priority areas:
- Built environment – Human-made surroundings that influence overall community health and people’s behaviors that drive health.
- Community-clinical linkages – Connections made between health care, public health, and community organizations to improve population health.
- Food and nutrition security – Having reliable access to enough high-quality food to avoid hunger and stay healthy.
- Social connectedness – The degree to which individuals or groups of individuals have and perceive a desired number, quality, and diversity of relationships that create a sense of belonging and being cared for, valued, and supported.
- Tobacco-free policy – Population-based preventive measures to reduce tobacco use and tobacco-related illness and death.
Map: 2022-2023 Award Recipients
Closing the Gap With Social Determinants of Health Accelerator Plans
