Synopsis: The odds of people experiencing positive health and quality of life are greatly increased when multiple factors within their ecosystem support positive health. However, far too many health types focus on “downstream” variables such as knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions. If you desire to help others achieve positive health and improve their quality of life, you must become very adept at designing interventions that positively influence multiple factors in the ecosystem and are sustainable. How do you do that?
Learning Objectives: After reading and learning from this resource guide, you should be able to:
- Describe the term “ecology” and how it impacts our health status.
- List and describe some eco-system type determinants of health.
- Describe the five Social Determinants of Health (SDOH).
- Explain why our programs should focus on the SDOH.