Center for Houston’s Future Report:
Social Determinants of Health
Impacting Maternal Health
Key Takeaways from the Report:
The medical and social factors affecting maternal health also drive COVID-19 and overall health outcomes. Community health and resilience are rooted in our ability to address these social risk factors.
Houston’s maternal health outcomes are worse than the national average, while the US has higher maternal mortality rates than other developed nations despite spending a greater percentage of GDP on healthcare.
Key challenges include a lack of coordination and sustainable funding to address social needs that drive 80% of outcomes.
The business community can act to improve maternal health, which will both improve the region’s overall health and boost workforce productivity.
Business-Based Community Engagement Can Improve Maternal Health, New Report Finds
Center for Houston’s Future is proud to release Social Determinants of Health Impacting Maternal Health and the Opportunities to Improve Outcomes, which against the backdrop of COVID-19, provides an overview of maternal health in our region and innovative recommendations for improvement.
The number of maternal deaths in the United States rose 14% in 2020 with COVID-19 exacerbating a trend of poor maternal health outcomes in our nation. The US continues to have the highest maternal mortality rate of all developed nations despite spending a greater percentage of GDP on healthcare. Maternal health is a leading indicator of any health system with broad economic impacts. A healthy economy depends on healthy people, and maternal death has a devastating effect on families and communities that is felt for generations. As a part of Center for Houston’s Future mission to identify the most important long-range issues facing our region, we present this report on maternal health and the associated social determinants of health.
The report recommends three strategies:
Internal policy implementation: Houston businesses can implement family-friendly workplace policies.
Employee education: In cases where it does not always make economic sense for employers to provide health insurance benefits, employers can provide education on available health services, such as Federally Qualified Health Clinics.
Cooperative community investment: Businesses can improve health outcomes for their employees by investing in community health programs in areas where their employees live.
This work has been made possible with the support of HCA Houston Healthcare, which generously underwrote this study and has served as an invaluable partner in connecting Houston with the region’s greater health care community. The Center’s work also benefitted from more than 30 subject-matter experts who participated in our roundtable discussion and interviews over the past year.
The 46-page report follows our 2020 report, Houston’s Economic Future: Health Care, which focused on both the economic vitality of the region’s health care system and our community’s health. These publications are part of the Center’s work around health, health care and health equity.