THURS-072 - The Social Determinants of Health and Implications for Public Health Intervention for Dementia Risk Reduction

Brief Abstract Summary: Gain a foundational understanding of how the social determinants of health (SDOH) - conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, play, and age as well as the systems and structures that people must navigate daily - relate to the risk for dementia by exploring the growing body of evidence on how the SDOH impact health across the life course. Attendees will also explore a new suite of SDOH tools available to understand and address SDOH and its impact on dementia risk by reducing health disparities, identify dementia-related SDOH affecting their communities, and create implementation strategies using examples across the intervention and prevention levels.

Detailed abstract description: Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, play, and age, as well as the systems and structures they navigate daily. SDOH impact the health and well-being of populations, accounting for up to 80% of the modifiable contributors to health outcomes. These determinants are also key drivers of health disparities and poor health outcomes. Since the development of Public Health 3.0, research on SDOH and upstream factors has expanded. There is now a growing body of evidence linking the SDOH and dementia risk.

The BOLD Public Health Center of Excellence on Dementia Risk Reduction (Center) at the Alzheimer’s Association is focused on translating the latest science on modifiable risk factors for dementia into actionable resources for public health departments. As a core component of this work, the Center focused its attention on understanding the associations between SDOH and dementia risk and developing tools for health departments to utilize in their communities. In the summer of 2024, the Center held a 4 part webinar series that highlighted this growing evidence. The webinars featured researchers as well as health departments targeting SDOH and focused on economic stability, nutrition and food insecurity, social engagement and isolation, and healthier environments. The series had a total of over 5,000 cumulative registrants with 93% of attendees finding the webinar valuable to their work and 81% of attendees intending to apply information learned to improve their public health work. To further support the understanding and integration of SDOH and dementia risk reduction, the Center developed a series of tools for public health practitioners to understand and integrate SDOH and dementia risk into their work including science summaries, an animated video, infographics and a SDOH toolkit.

These resources take a strengths-based approach, identifying and leveraging community assets to aid SDOH initiatives across the prevention and intervention levels. By emphasizing community strengths, public health strategies can foster long-lasting and sustainable improvements in health equity, empowering communities to take control of their health outcomes.

In the session, attendees will learn more about how the SDOH relates to dementia risk, how to use the new suite of SDOH and dementia risk tools to enhance their work and explore case studies. Without targeted public health action, unmet social needs resulting from SDOH can continue to have long-term effects on population health, especially among minority and under-resourced communities.