Expanding the Understanding of the Social Determinants of Health to Support Community Readiness for Change

Addressing the Social Determinants of Health is critical if we truly want to achieve health equity. The World Health Organization\u27s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health (2008) recognized the need to broaden the understanding of these determinants among the general public to facilitate change in communities. Using a concurrent transformative case study, this mixed methods design explored the potential increase in 1) awareness of the social determinants of health, 2) understanding of context and 3) organizational empowerment through the use of Photovoice and Action planning with a Rural Diabetes Community Coalition in Southeast Georgia. Engaging the coalition through these processes will potentially facilitate change in the county to impact long term diabetes outcomes. The qualitative inquiry included an in-depth document review, Photovoice (N=5), key informant interviews (N=8), action planning(N=8) and follow up interviews (N=5). As a secondary measure, the perceived control scale (N=12) was used as a pre/post-test to quantitatively measure the potential change in organizational empowerment. The qualitative results show an expanded view of context and the determinants that affect the health outcomes. The quantitative results are inconclusive. Recommendations for future research will be discussed