Social factors can be linked to death as readily as can patho-physiological and behavioral causes. These social factors contribute substantially to the burden of disease in the US: education, poverty, health insurance status, employment status and job stress, social support, racism or discrimination, housing conditions and early childhood stressors. Area-level social factors included area-level poverty, income inequality, deteriorating infrastructure, crime and violence, social capital and availability of open or green spaces. The numbers: 245,000 deaths in the US are attributable to low education, 162,000 to low social support, 133,000 to individual-level poverty, 119,000 to income inequality and 39,000 to area-level poverty.
American Journal of Public Health, June 2011