Social Determinants of Health and Diabetes in Pregnancy

Abstract

Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age. SDOH are systemic factors that may explain, perpetuate, and exacerbate disparities in health outcomes for different populations, and can be measured at both an individual- and neighborhood- or community-level (iSDOH, nSDOH). In pregnancy, increasing evidence shows that adverse iSDOH and/or nSDOH are associated with a greater likelihood that diabetes develops, and that when it develops, there is worse glycemic control and a greater frequency of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Future research should not only continue to examine the relationships between SDOH and adverse pregnancy outcomes with diabetes, but should determine whether multi-level interventions that seek to mitigate adverse SDOH result in equitable maternal care and improved patient health outcomes for pregnant individuals living with diabetes.