Bulletin of the World Health Organization | December 2005, 83 (12) Abstract Despite impressive improvements in aggregate indicators of health globally over the past few decades, health inequities between and within countries have persisted, and in many regions and countries are widening. Our recommendations regarding research priorities for health equity are based on an assessment of what infor...

In coupled social–ecological systems, the same driving forces can result in combined social and environmental health inequities, hazards, and impacts. Policies that decrease social inequities and improve social cohesion, however, also have the potential to improve health outcomes and to minimize and offset the drivers of ecosystem change. Actions that address both biophysical and social environ...

Health equity has started to receive significant attention among Canadian policy-makers, with acknowledgement at both the federal and provincial levels of the importance of reducing health inequities. However, a challenging budget environment has led to a number of budget cutbacks in areas that are likely to negatively influence social determinants of health, such as housing, education, and soc...

Equity is a core value of Health Impact Assessment (HIA). Many compelling moral, economic, and health arguments exist for prioritizing and incorporating equity considerations in HIA practice. Decision-makers, stakeholders, and HIA practitioners see the value of HIAs in uncovering the impacts of policy and planning decisions on various population subgroups, developing and prioritizing specific a...

What, and how much, people eat is a response to their socio-political, socio-economic, socio-environmental and socio-cultural environments. Good nutrition is central to good health. Globally, health has improved for many but not for everyone equally. That food and nutrition-related health is unequally distributed is a marker of societal failure. For some individuals, communities and even nation...

Special studies and isolated initiatives over the past several decades in low-, middle- and high-income countries have consistently shown inequalities in health among socioeconomic groups and by gender, race or ethnicity, geographical area and other measures associated with social advantage. Significant health inequalities linked to social (dis)advantage rather than to inherent biological diffe...

Although globalization has created ample opportunities and spaces to share experiences and information, the diffusion of ideas, especially in global health, is primarily influenced by the unequal distribution of economic, political and scientific powers around the world. These ideas in global health are generally rooted in High-Income Countries (HICs), and then reach Low- and Middle-Income Coun...