Social Conditions to Health Outcomes Pathway Map¶
Specification¶
The full specification below is extracted from Chapter 8: Health Equity and Disease Prevention.
Type: graph-model
**sim-id:** social-conditions-health-pathway-map<br/>
**Library:** vis-network<br/>
**Status:** Specified
Bloom Taxonomy Level: Analyze (L4)
Bloom Verb: examine, differentiate, organize
Learning objective: Students examine how five social-condition categories
(economic stability, neighborhood environment, food access, health care
access, education/social context) connect to and compound each other on
the way to a health outcome, distinguishing systemic causes from individual
behavior.
Node types:
1. Central outcome nodes (dark circles): "Chronic Disease Risk," "Life
Expectancy Gap," "Mental Health Burden"
2. Category nodes (blue squares): Economic Stability, Neighborhood/Physical
Environment, Food Access, Health Care Access, Education/Social Context
3. Mechanism nodes (orange diamonds), 2 per category, naming a concrete
real-world pathway (e.g., under Food Access: "Grocery store closes,
replaced by convenience stores" and "Fresh produce costs more per
calorie than processed food")
Edge types:
- "Compounds With" (dashed gray, category to category, showing overlap)
- "Contributes To" (solid black, mechanism to outcome node)
- "Shapes" (category to its mechanism nodes)
Layout: Force-directed network, outcome nodes anchored center-right,
category nodes surrounding, mechanisms as outer leaves
Interactive features:
- Hover any node: one-sentence plain-language description
- Click a category node: side panel explains that category and highlights
every category it compounds with, using the "Compounds With" edges
- Click a mechanism node: side panel gives a concrete, real-world example
- Drag, zoom, and pan enabled
Legend: color/shape key for outcomes, categories, mechanisms; edge style
key distinguishing "compounds with," "contributes to," and "shapes"
Implementation: vis-network, force-directed layout, click-triggered panel
content stored in a JSON lookup keyed by node id; emphasize in all panel
text that these are systemic pathways, not verdicts about individuals