The social determinants of mental and physical health during the COVID-19 pandemic

Social determinants of health (SDOH) are predictive of both chronic and acute physical and mental health problems. SDOH include adult socioeconomic position (e.g., income, education), early life adversities, physical environments, nutrition, health behaviors (e.g. smoking), social support, gender, marital status and experiences of discrimination. We will examine the degree to which these pre-pandemic SDOH are associated during the pandemic with physical health problems (e.g., contracting COVID-19, limitations in activities of daily living), mental health problems (e.g., depression, anxiety, binge drinking) and factors related to lower quality of life (e.g. loneliness). Particular focus will be on the link between socioeconomic factors and negative health outcomes during the pandemic, and the degree to which these associations are accounted for by pre-pandemic chronic health problems and other SDOH such as nutrition, childhood adversities, and health behaviors.