Table 3 Reasons for asking patients about their socioeconomic circumstances

 Clinicians can refer patients to social resources

[10, 16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38]

 Clinicians can engage directly with patients’ social needs

[18, 34, 39, 40]

 Clinicians can acknowledge patients’ socially-determined risk of disease (specifically cardiovascular disease risk)

[41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49] ( [16, 23, 35, 50,51,52])

 More clinical resources can be allocated to patients facing adverse social conditions

[26, 42, 53,54,55,56,57]

 Clinical management plans can be adapted to patients’ socioeconomic context

[11, 16, 32, 38, 58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70]

 Clinicians can better understand non-adherence to management plans

[26, 58, 66, 71, 72]

 Communication and relationships can be improved between patients and clinicians

[54, 73,74,75,76]

 Patient preferences

[27, 77, 78]

 Healthcare use by different socioeconomic groups can be better monitored

[26, 31, 43, 79,80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87,88,89]

 More healthcare resources can be allocated to populations with greater need

[35, 90,91,92,93]

 Healthcare services can be better adapted to population needs

[10, 16, 23, 26, 32, 42, 43, 60, 68, 87, 92, 94]

 Deprivation payments can be more accurately allocated

[55, 82, 90, 95,96,97]

 Health research can be improved

[13, 16, 35, 45, 46, 60, 73, 82, 89, 98,99,100,101,102,103,104]

 Public health policies can be better-informed

[10, 23, 32, 42, 44, 57, 66, 81, 105,106,107]

 Health and social care can be better integrated

[29, 31, 101]