Social Epidemiology Explained: Meaning, Impact, and Jobs

Key takeaways

• Social epidemiology examines the interactions between social inequalities and health that lead to adverse outcomes.

• Social epidemiology is a branch of epidemiology that studies social determinants of health outcomes, such as residential segregation, income inequality, and ethnicity.

• Social epidemiology jobs may include a social epidemiologist, a biostatistician, a regional disease intervention specialist, an epidemiology investigator, and a communicable disease specialist.

Other social epidemiology areas to study include educational opportunities, work environments, and neighborhood traits. Explore social epidemiology, its impact, and the jobs you can expect to encounter in the field.

If you’re ready to build skills for a career in social epidemiology, enroll in the Imperial College of London’s Epidemiology for Public Health Specialization, where you can design and critique epidemiological research. In as little as four weeks, you’ll have the opportunity to develop skills in clinical research, biostatistics, data analysis, and more.

What is social epidemiology?

Social epidemiology is a branch of epidemiology that studies the impact social conditions have on population health outcomes. It assumes that the distribution of benefits and drawbacks impacts the occurrence of health and disease in a community.

Much as the broader field of epidemiology focuses on tracing the origins of diseases and how to contain or stop their spread, social epidemiology centers on understanding the social causes of diseases and identifying the communities most impacted by them in order to remedy their impact on at-risk communities. Common risk factors that social epidemiologists study include social determinants of health outcomes, such as educational opportunities, work environments, neighborhood traits, residential segregation, income inequality, and ethnicity.

While other forms of health research, such as virology, study disease from a purely biological perspective, social epidemiology considers how social inequalities and health interact to produce adverse outcomes.

What is a social epidemic? Explore social epidemics examples

Depending on your field, as a social epidemiologist, you may work with social epidemics, which are behavior-based non-communicable diseases. For example, you may examine the social causes of obesity, suicide, violence, loneliness, or opioid addiction.

How does social epidemiology help social change?

Social epidemiology provides a deeper understanding of how social factors affect the health outcomes of the general public and the communities that comprise it. As a result, research conducted by social epidemiologists has the potential to guide the development of public policy and support the communities most affected by the political and economic policy decisions that impact many people’s lives. At the same time, social epidemiology is increasingly used to better understand how to expand health and medical care services for the communities most in need. By successfully implementing health interventions within at-risk communities, social epidemiology has the potential to provide help at both the community and individual levels.

Social epidemiology jobs

Social epidemiology encompasses many of the same roles, such as biostatistician and epidemiology investigator, as the field of epidemiology at large, but with a greater emphasis on the social factors contributing to health disparities. As a result, when you’re job hunting for a social epidemiologist position, you may encounter many of the same titles as you might see when looking at more general epidemiology positions.

Some of the job titles you can expect to encounter when searching for a job within social epidemiology include:

• Social epidemiologist

• Biostatistician

• Regional disease intervention specialist

• Epidemiology investigator

• Communicable disease specialist

Read more: Epidemiologist Salary: What You Can Earn and How to Qualify

Explore free resources about public health

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• Read our Career Chat issue: AI in Health Care: Uses, Benefits, and Concerns

• Watch on YouTube: What Can You Do with a Public Health Degree

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