Does the evidence base on social determinants of health cross disciplinary boundaries? A review of reviews

Social determinants of health (SDH) have emerged as a major area of emphasis in medicine over the last 30 years. While increasing interest in SDH has led to a proliferation of literature on this topic, it is unclear whether the medical evidence base on SDH has assimilated contributions from other disciplines. We analyzed interdisciplinary contributions to the medical evidence base on SDH, using a bibliographic analysis of highly cited literature reviews. Medical review articles from 1990 to 2020 were queried using the Scopus database, with a keyword search in the title and abstract for "social determinants of health." The top 100 most highly cited articles were sampled for inclusion, and references in each review were screened to identify journal articles published in other disciplines. An initial Scopus search identified 502 eligible reviews. After reviewing the top 100 most highly cited articles, 40 articles published between 2000 and 2017 met our inclusion criteria. and received between 33 and 940 citations. These reviews included references to a median of 41 journal articles (interquartile range [IQR]: 25, 67), of which a median of 11 was from public health journals (IQR: 6, 18) and 4 were from other social science fields (IQR: 1, 11). On multivariable analysis, more recent reviews incorporated more sources from public health but not from other social science fields. Relevant SDH scholarship from sociology and related fields is not being integrated into the evidence base directed at clinician audiences and may be underutilized in shaping policy and practice in these areas.