From HIV.gov: Register Now! Webinar – A Syndemic Approach: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Improve Outcomes

From HIV.gov:

Register for the webinar, A Syndemic Approach: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Improve Outcomes, on Tuesday, August 6, at 1 pm (ET).

Hosted by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health’s Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy (OIDP), the webinar builds upon OIDP’s work to define the term syndemic and integrate syndemic approaches into our work. Panelists will discuss the Department of Health and Human Services’ definition for syndemics, benefits of a syndemic approach, and some of the barriers that exist. This panel will also share best practices that have delivered results and will discuss important issues related to syndemics.

To attend, please register for the webinar, A Syndemic Approach: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Improve Outcomes, on Tuesday, August 6, at 1 pm (ET).

HHS Definition of Syndemics

Federal colleagues created a Syndemic Steering Committee in 2022 and developed a common HHS syndemic definition:

Syndemics occur when two or more diseases or health conditions cluster and interact within a population because of social and structural factors and inequities, leading to an excess burden of disease and continuing health disparities. Syndemics arise when:

1. Two (or more) diseases or health conditions cluster and interact within a population;
2. Social and structural factors and inequities allow for diseases or health conditions to cluster; and
3. The clustering of disease or health conditions results in disease interaction, either biologic or social or behavioral, leading to an excess burden of disease and continuing health disparities.

Syndemics Resources

• Read about the 2023 Syndemics Solutions Summit, a Collaborative Approach to Advancing Health Services.
• View the Syndemic Approach to STI Interventions and Prevention video.
• Read the blog, Still Reaching: The Syndemics that Complicate and Characterize How Drugs and HIV Intersect in People’s Lives.

Other Resource

• On April 29 of this year, HIV.gov published a blog titled “Defining the Term “Syndemic,”’ we encourage you to read it.