An Educational Intervention of Health Workers to Address the Social Determinants of Health: A Quasi Experimental Study in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Background The social determinants of health (SDOH) are commonly accountable for health inequalities, the imbalanced and preventable variances in health status observed within and amongst the countries. Effective training and guidance of healthcare professionals in addressing the social determinants can significantly enhance their ability to improve the health outcomes of individuals and populations. This study aims to evaluate the social and health outcomes of patients after applying the Community Links Evidence to Action Research (CLEAR) toolkit in clinical practice. Methods A quasi-experimental design was used with three distinct phases, i.e., pre-intervention phase, intervention phase, and post-intervention phase. The sample size was 222 respondents’ from a teaching hospital of 520 beds, located in the northern zone of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from January till November, 2022. The distribution of the quantitative variables was checked using the Kolgomorov-Smirnov test. Further, a paired sample t-test for normally distributed data and a Wilcoxon signed rank test for skewed data sets were used for comparing the pre- and post-data. Results The majority of the respondents of the present study were male (51.0%) and married (61.9%) with a mean ± SD age of 36.18 ± 15.81. The pre- and post-intervention comparison of the social outcomes of patients showed that there was a significant increase in resilience (mean rank 73.92 vs 92.36; p value = 0.000) and social support (mean rank 84.78 vs 93.76; p value = 0.014) of the patients. The comparison of the median of variables pre- and post-intervention showed a significant increase in the perceived health status of the respondents (mean rank 78.27 vs. 91.88; p value = 0.001) while a significant decrease was observed for perceived stress status (mean rank 80.79 vs 78.88; p value = 0.000) and total perceived stress score (mean rank 97.08 vs 87.43) of the respondents. Conclusion By equipping healthcare professionals with an understanding of the various social factors that influence health outcomes, it can significantly improve the overall well-being of individuals and communities, as the study provides evidence of improved social and health outcomes post-intervention.