Research & Reports

The SDOH & Place team regularly releases reports, research articles, and related products. Learn more about our work to advance the measurement and understanding of the Social Determinants of Health and structural drivers of health!

  • Study Protocol: Generating an Ontology of Community-level SDOH

    Study Protocol: Generating an Ontology of Community-level SDOH

    Garrett, C., Gadri, M., Lyu, Y., Shan, P., Discenza, C., Astacio-Palmer, M., Barronville, K., Gounder, B., Simmons, M., & Kolak, M.

    This study protocol proposes the development of an  ontology is to organize SDOH concepts across community-level, place-based, regional, population-level, and policy-relevant determinants of health. The ontology will identify candidate terms across twelve primary SDOH domains, review their use in the literature and existing ontology research, refine their definitions and placement, and translate them into a formal ontology structure. It introduces a community-level and place-based semantic framework for understanding how SDOH terms are defined, classified, related, and positioned across domains, measurement scales, and policy contexts. More broadly, the ontology will make the conceptual boundaries, meanings, and levels of analysis associated with SDOH terms explicit, providing a foundation for more consistent measurement, study comparison, data interoperability, and future public health and policy applications.

    Access resource
  • Place & the Social-Spatial Determinants of Health

    Place & the Social-Spatial Determinants of Health

    Volume co-edited by Marynia Kolak, Imelda Moise

    This book explores how incorporating a spatial perspective enriches the concept of SDoH, lending to the notion of social-spatial determinants of health (SSDoH). Given the multidimensional and intersecting nature of health determinants, a spatial perspective is crucial for defining, measuring, understanding, and operationalizing SDoH. Structural factors that influence population health patterns often leave spatial footprints, such as the legacies of redlining or the placement of vulnerable groups near polluted locales. This volume brings together geographers, sociologists, clinicians, public health researchers, architects, data scientists, and thinkers to provide rich discussions on the current state of the field and visions for the future.

  • A Guide to Human-Centered Design

    A Guide to Human-Centered Design

    Shubham Kumar, Elaine Katz, Marc Astacio-Palmer, José Alavez, and Marynia Kolak

    This report seeks to illuminate the design process necessary to create accessible, enjoyable, and empowering data tools for place-based health equity. It also outlines basic principles of HCD, describing a general four-step process to put design into action, as well as showcasing best practices to create user-friendly designs in general.

    Access resource