Despite growing interest in understanding how social factors drive poor health outcomes, many academics, policy makers, scientists, elected officials, journalists, and others responsible for defining and responding to the public discourse remain reluctant to identify racism as a root cause of racial health inequities. In this conceptual report, the third in a Series on equity and equality in he...

Health disparities are, first and foremost, those indicators of a relative disproportionate burden of disease on a particular population. Health inequities point to the underlying causes of the disparities, many if not most of which sit largely outside of the typically constituted domain of "health". The literature reviewed for this synthesis document indicates that time and again health dispar...

By disaggregating gains in child health in Bangladesh over the past several decades, significant improvements in gender and socioeconomic inequities have been revealed. With the use of a social determinants of health approach, key features of the country's development experience can be identified that help explain its unexpected health trajectory. The systematic equity orientation of health and...

Climate change is a social justice as well as an environmental issue. The magnitude and pattern of changes in weather and climate variables are creating differential exposures, vulnerabilities, and health risks that increase stress on health systems while exacerbating existing and creating new health inequities. Examples from national and local health adaptation projects highlight that developi...

Health inequities among people of different races and ethnicities, geographical locations, and social classes are not a new phenomenon, although the size of the inequities has changed since researchers first began documenting them. While interventions to improve the health of targeted disadvantaged groups may help combat disparities, broader trends that disproportionately benefit privileged gro...

Market- and legislation-driven health reforms are being implemented across the United States. Within this time of great change for health care delivery systems and medical schools lie opportunities to address the country's long-standing health inequities by using community needs assessments, health information technologies, and new models for care and payment. In this Commentary, the author, a ...

BACKGROUND This study aimed to measure the income-related inequalities and inequities - the inequalities that remain after accounting for differences in health need - in expenditure on fully publicly covered (hospital and ambulatory) and partially publicly covered (prescription drugs) services for those in their last year of life in the province of British Columbia (B.C.), Canada. We focused on...