There is substantive evidence that social policies that address the social determinants of health have a substantial ROI. Why isn't more action being taken to fund and focus on SDoH?

Where can new policy and practice be developed to improve social policies?

Milbank conducted a systematic review and meta‐analysis of 38 randomized trials of social policies and their improvement of health.

“Our study is exciting because it shows for the first time that it is possible for the government to improve health by making investments outside of the health care system. Still, policymakers need to be careful about how they make these investments, because they also have the potential to do harm,” said author Peter Muennig, MD, a professor of health policy and management at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

Policy Points:

• Social policies might not only improve economic well‐being, but also health. Health policy experts have therefore advocated for investments in social policies both to improve population health and potentially reduce health system costs.
• Since the 1960s, a large number of social policies have been experimentally evaluated in the United States. Some of these experiments include health outcomes, providing a unique opportunity to inform evidence‐based policymaking.
• Our comprehensive review and meta‐analysis of these experiments find suggestive evidence of health benefits associated with investments in early life, income support, and health insurance interventions. However, most studies were underpowered to detect health outcomes.

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