Project Summary
PCORI commissioned an interactive evidence map on the topic of social needs interventions that measure health outcomes. Social needs interventions arose as a topic of interest from a 2019 PCORI call for evidence synthesis topic nominations.
Social needs interventions focus on an individual’s immediate nonmedical needs not traditionally attended to by the medical system. Locating high-quality evidence on interventions addressing social needs is time consuming, making it difficult for communities, health systems, purchasers, payers, and other stakeholders to know which interventions work for which populations.
The goal of the evidence map is to develop an interactive and easily accessible visual product that identifies and describes primary research on social needs interventions. Data to be included in the map are directionality of study findings, study quality, important population and study characteristics, and health outcomes.
This project includes data updates to the evidence map from its launch in 2021 through 2023. PCORI also commissioned a scoping review to characterize the complexity of social needs interventions in efficacy trials assessing health and healthcare utilization outcomes, which complements the interactive evidence map.
More to Explore...
Evidence Map and Evidence Visualization
Social Needs Interventions to Improve Health Outcomes
- Methodology/Summary Report Update (Published December 2022)
- Methodology/Summary Report Update (Published August 2022)
- Methodology/Summary Report Update (Published February 2022)
- Methodology/Summary Report (Published August 2021)
Blogs
Exploring the Evidence on Social Needs Interventions to Improve Health Outcomes
This evidence visualization summarizes evidence on social needs interventions that assessed impacts on health. Learn about what social needs and types of outcomes have been studied, the quality of the evidence, and why the evidence map is important.