Table 3.

General Acceptability of Social Screening

First Author (Year)Findings
Key Quantitative Findings
Hassan (2013)33% of participants would welcome social screening

  • No differences by age, gender, or race/ethnicity

Colvin (2016)71% of participants wanted their child’s doctor to ask about social issues

  • More common among participants who had been previously screened versus those who had not (86% vs 65%)

  • No differences by socioeconomic status

De Marchis (2019)79% of participants found social screening appropriate

  • Higher odds among participants who had been previously screened versus those who had not (OR, 1.82; 95% CI, 1.16, 2.88)

  • Higher odds among participants who trusted their clinician versus those who did not (OR, 1.55; 95% CI, 1.00, 2.40)

  • Lower odds among participants who had experienced prior discrimination within the health care setting (OR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.45, 0.95)

  • Higher odds among participants recruited from primary care settings versus EDs (OR, 1.70; 95% CI, 1.23, 2.38)

  • Higher odds among participants recruited from sites with 80%+ publicly insured uninsured participants (OR, 1.71; 95% CI, 1.03, 1.86)

  • No differences by age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, income, preferred language, child’s health, number of reported social risks, receipt of prior assistance, discomfort with screening domains, or interest in assistance

Kocielnik (2019)Most participants found social screening comfortable (data not shown)

  • No difference between high- and low-literacy participants

Rogers (2020)85% of participants agreed that their health system should ask about one or more social needs

  • Females more likely to agree than males (OR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.3, 2.2)

  • Participants of Asian or Pacific Islander descent less likely to agree than White participants (OR, 0.7; 95% CI, 0.6, 0.9)

  • Participants who endorsed social needs more likely to agree than those who did not (OR, 3.7; 95% CI, 2.0, 6.9)

  • No differences by age, gender, or education

Oldfield (2021)84% of participants found screening “comfortable” or “very comfortable”

  • No difference between caregivers and adolescents

Key Qualitative Findings
Hamity (2018)Most participants found social screening appropriate
Byhoff (2019)*Participants’ acceptability was influenced by whether they felt respected by their provider(s)
Byhoff (2020)Many participants found social screening acceptable
Wallace (2021)Participants did not think communities would find social screening acceptable; expressed positive or neutral responses about being screened themselves
Spain (2021)Many participants positively experienced being asked about social needs
Some participants preferred to focus their clinical time on discussing their own health-related priorities

  • Abbreviations: ED, emergency department; OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval.

  • ↵*Omitted other findings regarding general acceptability because authors presented information that was redundant with a larger sample of the same study.