3-D Commission’s supplement published in The Journal of Urban Health

A core goal of the 3-D Commission is to advance scholarship at the intersection of the social determinants of health (SDoH), data, and decision-making. To that end, we are excited to announce the publication of our supplement in The Journal of Urban Health. This supplement adds to the literature eight studies that explore how we might use data on SDoH to inform decision-making.

Two key themes emerge from a reading of the articles in this supplement. First, context matters, and complete context is critical to understanding the SDoH relevant to a given population. This conclusion highlights the need to collect and use comprehensive data that characterize the full range of SDoH at national and local levels. Second, literature and practice that link SDoH, data, and decision-making is scarce. This conclusion underscores the need to invest in research and practice approaches that examine how we can incorporate data on SDoH into decision-making, to the end of improving population health.

The supplement offers a snapshot of the current academic work linking SDoH, data, and decision-making. Taken together with the forthcoming 3-D Commission report, it advocates for a more robust engagement with data on the SDoH, which will in turn pave the way for multisectoral decision-making that prioritizes the foundational causes of health.

To read the articles included in the supplement, please follow the links below: 

• The 3-D Commission: Forging a transdisciplinary synthesis at the intersection of social determinants of health, data, and decision-making

• Data, social determinants, and better decision-making for health

• Housing as a social determinant of health: Evidence from Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Kenya

• Data sources for understanding the social determinants of health: Examples from two middle-income countries

• Use of data to understand the social determinants of depression in two middle‐income countries

• Integrating social determinants in decision-making processes for health: Insights from conceptual frameworks

• Improving decision-making for population health in non-health sectors in urban environments: The example of the transportation sector in three megacities

• Energy, data, and decision-making: A scoping review

• Food, big data, and decision-making: A scoping review