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Resources for Families with Cardiovascular Disease

Discussing Your Heart Condition with Children and Youth

It can be difficult to talk to your child about your heart event or diagnosis. This guide was designed to help you navigate your way through discussing your heart condition with children.

Living Well as a Caregiver

This guide is for caregivers and families of people with heart disease. It contains tips, tools, and resources to support you in your role, and strategies for taking care of your mental, physical, and emotional health.

What Are Social Determinants of Health (SDoH)?

Social Determinants of Health are the social factors and conditions that influence people’s health outcomes. SDoH factors are comprised of upstream forces and structures (e.g., governance, societal values, healthcare quality, systemic discrimination) and more downstream ‘intermediary’ factors (e.g., community integration, family-level factors) that cascade into determining individuals’ health. In general, SDoH can be grouped into 5 domains: economic stability, education access & quality, health care access & quality, neighbourhood & built environment, and social & community context.

SDoH Scales

The following scales measure both upstream and downstream factors of SDoH. Many of these have been developed for use in scientific studies to assess the various social factors that influence an individual’s health. For those who wish to use the scales, please contact the researchers who developed them.

*Disclaimer* The measures linked here were compiled by the Social Connections Lab but were NOT created by, or property of, neither the lab or the UOHI.