The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released a report on social determinants of health (SDH) and select HIV outcomes. This report is one of the first county-level, multi-jurisdictional analyses to examine SDH and linkage to HIV medical care, retention in HIV medical care, and HIV viral suppression.

SDH are overlapping social structures and economic systems (e.g., social environment, physical environment, health services, and structural and societal factors) that are responsible for most health inequities. SDH are linked to a lack of opportunity and to a lack of resources to protect, improve, and maintain health. Addressing the SDH that adversely affect health outcomes may 1) advance efforts in reducing disparities in HIV diagnosis rates between populations, and 2) help to quantify health differences between populations or geographic areas, which can provide insight for identifying populations or areas that may benefit from HIV testing, prevention, and treatment initiatives.

This report presents HIV data from the National HIV Surveillance System (NHSS) on persons aged 18 years and older with HIV infection diagnosed through 2014 and persons living with diagnosed HIV infection by year-end 2013. It also presents SDH data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS). Data were limited to persons aged 18 years and older to more accurately represent the population from which the SDH indicator variables were collected by ACS. Read the report.