“Social Determinants of Health and Their Impact on Black Women in San Diego County: The Social, Economic, and Environmental Factors that Shape Health Outcomes”

In collaboration with the Jewish Family Service of San Diego (JFSSD) and under the guidance of the Sage Project, student researchers at San Diego State University collected existing data to aid the launch of the Black Women’s Resilience Project (BWRP)—a new initiative being launched by the JFSSD to support Black women living in San Diego. The student researchers assembled data from multiple surveys relating to social determinants of health (SDOH) in order to illustrate how Black women’s physical health outcomes are impacted by various social, financial, and environmental factors in San Diego. The goal of this research is to assess which SDOH most negatively affect Black women’s health outcomes in order to assist the BWRP in developing community-centered interventions. Overall, the findings suggest that Black women (and other women of color) consistently experience worse SDOH than White women, and thus experience worse physical and mental health outcomes. Possible recommendations for the BWRP include financially targeting SDOH with higher impacts on health outcomes and including financial planning in their service offerings to clients.