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Information is a determinant of health

Nature Medicine volume 30, pages 927–928 (2024)Cite this article

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The COVID-19 pandemic shone a harsh public spotlight on how deep-rooted socioeconomic inequalities affect health outcomes. Irrespective of their geography or wealth, nations across the world have reported that the pandemic disproportionately affected those of lower socioeconomic standing. Regrettably, this finding is not a new phenomenon, as factors such as housing, education, community context, healthcare quality and income constitute a well-established set of ‘social determinants of health’ (SDH) — a group of non-medical factors that influence health outcomes. In the context of the pandemic, these factors have contributed to differences in viral exposure, disease susceptibility, access to healthcare services and, ultimately, disparities in health outcomes between population groups. Tackling this set of inequalities has therefore understandably become the cornerstone of many proposed social reform policies in the aftermath of the pandemic.

The pandemic provided clear examples of how information quality can directly affect health outcomes. Before the vaccine rollout, the principal means of countering the spread of SARS-CoV-2 was through strict pan-population adherence to non-pharmaceutical interventions. These interventions, which consisted of timely access to valid information (such as adhering to social distancing advice from credible sources), have been associated with decreased viral transmission and disease incidence.

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Fig. 1: IDH.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. YouTube, San Bruno, CA, USA

    Garth Graham, Nira Goren & Viknesh Sounderajah

  2. Google, Mountain View, CA, USA

    Nira Goren, Viknesh Sounderajah & Karen DeSalvo

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  1. Garth Graham
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  2. Nira Goren
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  3. Viknesh Sounderajah
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  4. Karen DeSalvo
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Correspondence to Viknesh Sounderajah.

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All authors are salaried employees of Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube.

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Graham, G., Goren, N., Sounderajah, V. et al. Information is a determinant of health. Nat Med 30, 927–928 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02792-9

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