Synthesizing evidence-based strategies and community-engaged research: A model to address social determinants of health

Addressing social determinants of health (SDH) requires multileveled intervention designs. Increasingly, organizations and coalitions face pressure to use evidence-based strategies when seeking to address SDH. Evidence-based strategies, however, must be locally relevant and integrated into existing systems to function efficiently. We propose the incorporation of an effective rapid assessment technique, Rapid Assessment, Response, and Evaluation (RARE), with evidence-based strategies, findings, and recommendations embedded in community-engaged research to increase the likelihood of success in addressing SDH. Our RARE project-a partnership among a community health center, a nonprofit funding agency, and academic faculty researchers-resulted in community- and policy-level interventions for the prevention of childhood obesity in a Southwestern U.S. city.