Recent public health research has focused on how social determinants of health (SDoH) and structural racism impact health outcomes and how environments, such as schools and neighborhoods, influence health. In 2022-2023, NCCOR enlisted Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition to help summarize relevant information about environments that are influenced by SDoH and structural racism that in turn influence childhood obesity, as well as measures that exist to capture these relationships. This brief report summarizes the methods and findings of an initial “phase 1” study to address this research gap identified by NCCOR.
The primary research questions of this phase 1 study are as follows:
- What measures are available to assess social determinants of health and structural racism that could be relevant to childhood obesity research?
- What data exists and/or is needed to show how social determinants of health and structural racism impact childhood obesity?