Social Determinants of Health and HIV/AIDS in Florida

As of 2016, there were reported to be 135,986 people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) in Florida alone, and its cities lead the nation’s incidence rates at around 5,000 new HIV diagnoses annually. Using a few social determinants of health (SDH) associated with deaths of despair (DOD), this paper aims to connect HIV rates to SDH to gain more understanding of how SDH can aid in the alleviation of HIV through public health policy and social change. Methods: This analysis evaluated the predictive ability of the SDH: Education, Insurance, Race, and RaceXEducation for HIV incidence in Florida using regression analysis. Results: A backwards regression analysis using the four variables a) Race, b) Insurance, c) Education, and d) RaceXEducation was statistically significant, F(4,51) = 11.10, p \u3c .001, and accounted for 42% of the variance in HIV incidence. Higher rates of white residents and insured residents was associated with a significant decrease in HIV rate (ps \u3c .05), while higher levels of education were associated with a significant increase in HIV rate (p \u3c .001). The RaceXEducation interaction was significant in the negative direction (p = .001). Conclusion: Social Determinants of Health, particularly education and race, have a significant effect on HIV/AIDS prevalence and incidence and are great predictors of HIV status in Florida