Social Determinants of Health, Social Risks, and Social Needs
Oct 1, 2021
Social determinants of health (SDH) and their individual-level health-related social needs (HRSN) are increasingly recognized as important components of health, health care, and health outcomes. In this work we use a variety of state and nationwide data sources to evaluate the use and utility of clinically documented social risks and social needs.

Wyatt P. Bensken, PhD
Research Investigator & Adjunct Assistant Professor of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences
My research interests include health disparities, health inequities, social determinants of health, and complex chronic conditions.
Publications
An Increase in the Use of ICD-10 Z-Codes for Social Risks and Social Needs: 2015 to 2019
Attention to 10th Revision of the International Classification of Disease (ICD-10)-CM Z-codes as a mechanism for capturing social risk …
ICD-10 Z-Code Health-Related Social Needs and Increased Healthcare Utilization
Introduction: Health-related social needs are known drivers of health and health outcomes, yet work to date to examine health-related …
Health Status and Chronic Disease Burden of the Homeless Population: An Analysis of Two Decades of Multi-Institutional Electronic Medical Records
Using a multi-institutional EMR registry, we extracted housing status and evaluated the presence of several important comorbidities in …
Health-Related Social Needs and Increased Readmission Rates: Findings from the Nationwide Readmissions Database
Background: While health-related social needs (HRSN) are known to compromise health, work to date has not clearly demonstrated the …
How do we define homelessness in large health care data? Identifying variation in composition and comorbidities
Limited research exists on the health of the homeless population, and often relies on large health care datasets and varied methods, …