Our health depends on many factors beyond falls and colds. We know that social determinants of health, including economic and social resources, affect not only individual health but also the health of communities. For example, according to the World Health Organization, life expectancy in high-income countries is 18 years longer than life expectancy in low-income countries. This could reflect the quality of health care, but it could also reflect many other factors that are influenced by income. As a result, doctors are expanding their medical practice outside of the clinic and into everyday activities that have therapeutic benefits, like spending time in nature or dancing.
A majority of Americans (69%) strongly or somewhat support the practice of social prescription (connecting people in non-medical activities, such as dancing) becoming more common in American health care. Slightly more Americans under 45 (73%) support addressing people’s underlying issues with social prescriptions than Americans over 45 (66%). Similarly, slightly more Democrats (78%) support this proposed change than Independents (65%) and Republicans (66%).
While a majority of Americans support doctors routinely offering social prescriptions, only 41% would feel positively — be pleased or fond — if it were offered to them themselves. Nearly one-third of Americans (32%) have neutral feelings about being prescribed social activities as part of a larger treatment plan.
Groups more likely to support social prescribing generally have a more positive view of the possibility of receiving a social prescription themselves: Adults under 45 (46%) are more likely to say they would prefer or be happy to receive a social prescription than older adults (36%), and Democrats (51%) are more likely to say they would be happy to be prescribed a social plan than Independents (34%) or Republicans (39%).
Forty-two percent of Americans say doctors still don’t focus enough on the social determinants of health. Women (47%) are more likely than men (36%), and people with college degrees (47%) are more likely than those without college degrees (39%) to say doctors generally don’t focus enough on the underlying social causes of health.
If social prescribing itself becomes widespread, it may change how Americans view whether doctors are focusing on these underlying social causes.
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Check out the results of this poll:
Methodology: This daily question survey was conducted online among 8,648 U.S. adults from April 29-30, 2024. The sample was weighted for gender, age, race, education, U.S. Census region, and political party. The overall sample has a margin of error of approximately 1 percentage point.
Image: Getty (Jordan Siemens)