Introduction:

Social determinants are the reflection of the policies adopted by governments and the distribution of wealth around the world. These influence the health inequities and quality of life of the population.

Objective:

To establish the relationship between social determinants of perceived health and quality of life in three departmental capitals of Honduras.

Methods:

Descriptive-correlational study in 2017. The universe was constituted by the inhabitants of San Pedro Sula, Tegucigalpa and Santa Barbara. Stratified sampling by place/gender. 824 participants over 16 years old, volunteers were included. A questionnaire on social determinants of health and the WHOQOL-BREF quality of life tool were applied. The data was processed in IBM SPSS version 26. Correlational analysis was performed. Mann Whitney and Kruskal Wallis U-tests were calculated.

Results:

53.3 % (439) were female, aged between 16-80 years. 29.5% (242) were unemployed, 74% (610) had a monthly family income lower than a minimum monthly wage, 85.2% (703) belonged to the middle social stratum. 26% (214) had access to health by private means. A statistically significant relationship was found between educational level, monthly income, social stratum, access to health and health status, with the four domains of quality of life.

Conclusions:

It is important to improve the social equity of Hondurans, so that the general population has better opportunities to meet their needs such as housing, access to health, education and thus be able to have a better quality of life.