What is needed? Improving health outcomes requires policy initiatives supporting all four health determinant areas: health behaviors, socioeconomic factors, health care access and physical environment. Of those, policies that focus on reducing poverty and unemployment and on increasing graduation rates and social support will have the biggest impact on improving health across the state.
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers analyzed policies and programs with scientific evidence that they improve the socioeconomic factors that drive health, including wage supports for working poor (e.g., expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit) and other programs for poor and working class families (e.g., comprehensive early childhood education and development programs, such as Head Start).