Equity is when no one is disadvantaged from attaining the best health possible due to race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, nationality, socioeconomic status, or geographical background.
Promoting equity in healthcare involves addressing social determinants of health and improving fair practice through science, policy, programs, and interventions. It also focuses on acknowledging and tackling racism, which can create conditions that unfairly advantage some people and disadvantage others.
The social-ecological model of health focuses on identifying and targeting factors at different levels that contribute to poor health. It recognizes that the physical environment, available resources, and interpersonal and societal influences influence health.
The social-ecological model of health has been recommended to guide public health practice. However, the extent to which this approach has been adopted in health promotion interventions needs to be clarified.
To better understand the level of adoption of this approach in health promotion, we developed a coding system that captures identified intervention activities, targets for change, behavioral health topics, program settings, and theoretical bases. We applied the coding system to 157 intervention articles published in Health Education & Behavior between January 1, 1989, and December 31, 2008.
Health inequity is the differences in health outcomes between people based on race, ethnicity, income, socioeconomic status, gender, age, and geographic location. These disparities create health inequities and prevent people from reaching their full potential.
However, addressing healthcare inequities takes work. It requires a combination of policy and community initiatives.
In addition, it takes time and energy. Individuals can help improve health inequities by modeling and promoting equity and by helping those living with injustices access care.
To address healthcare inequities, organizations need to collect and report race and ethnicity data for all patients, build partnerships with different sectors (e.g., racial and ethnic minority-serving organizations, tribal communities, school and transportation systems), and increase community capacity to shape outcomes. They also need to monitor clinical performance related to equity and share this information with clinicians through direct feedback, such as capturing patient-clinician interactions on audio or video.
Health equality is the concept that everyone has equal opportunities to attain and maintain their best possible health. Examples of this could be a community center offering free or low-cost checkups for all people.
However, some people may not have these opportunities because of their differences or situation. These differences are called health disparities and are beyond an individual’s control.
Disparities can be caused by discrimination, lack of resources, and other factors. To resolve these inequities, people, and groups must acknowledge the problem and make a commitment to change.
Health equity requires addressing a range of factors that affect health, including socioeconomic status, housing conditions, education, employment, and access to health care. There are a growing number of initiatives to address these social determinants of health within the healthcare system and outside it.
These efforts include multi-payer federal and state initiatives, Medicaid-specific initiatives led by states or managed care plans, as well as activities that focus on non-medical and social needs in providers’ settings.
Leadership-championed mechanisms for cross-sectoral collaboration can jump-start work on health equity. They often leverage executive authority and require minimal funding, which makes it possible to launch rapidly as a first step. These efforts can be a foundation for broader community-driven policies.
Health equity is an important concept that focuses on equal access to healthcare and health education for all people. It is the idea that everyone deserves the best possible health, irrespective of age, socioeconomic status, or ethnicity.
There are several ways to measure health equity in the healthcare system. One way is to evaluate health disparities and stratify measures by social determinants of health such as race, ethnicity, income, level of education, disability status, rurality, or other variables.
This type of measurement can be helpful for identifying inequities but can also have drawbacks. It can be challenging to share data among entities and create confidence that the underlying information is accurate. In addition, it can be costly to use this type of measurement.