Health equity is a state in which every person has the opportunity to attain his or her full health potential. It occurs when no person is disadvantaged from achieving this potential due to social position or other socio-economic factors/circumstances. It is the idea that everyone should have all of the resources needed to be healthy, which include: nutritious food, stable housing, safe places to play and exercise, good education, fair-paying jobs, clean air & water, quality health care, and freedom from exploitation and racism.

A lack of health equity can be observed through various factors, including differences in length of life, quality of life, prevalence of disease, prevalence of disability, severity of disease, and access to treatment.

Social Determinants of Health

Health is not just about genetics and medical care. There are several other factors that are determinants of an individual’s health, including: the social conditions faced as one lives, learns, and works, which ultimately shape how healthy that person is.

Here are some social determinants of health:

• Access to a good education
• Access to healthy food
• Access to a safe home to live in
• Access to reliable transportation
• Access to health care
• Access to clean water and air

What causes Health Equity?

When understanding the root causes of health inequity, one must understand the myriad causes of health and health care disparities. In order to strive towards an equitable state, it is important to address and tackle these issues.

One critical relationship to understand is that between socioeconomic status and healthcare, which is supported by various studies. Socioeconomic status–which includes components such as income, education, and occupation–controls three major determinants of health: health care, environmental exposure, and health behavior. Since those with a lower status have less access to resources, health is unevenly distributed across socioeconomic status; people of lower income, education, or status have worse health and live shorter lives than those of a higher socioeconomic status. In addition, there are other factors that exacerbate this. For example, chronic stress associated with a lower status may also increase morbidity and mortality.

Health equity can be targeted by removing health disparities, which are preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities. The goal of health equity research is to study these issues within social and structural contexts to best develop strategies to eliminate these barriers.

Categories of Health Equity

Health equity can be explored in depth through various categories, which include:

Cancer: In regards to cancer, health equity refers to when everyone has an equal opportunity to find cancer early, prevent cancer, and get proper treatment and follow-up. When someone is at risk for developing cancer, screening is crucial–failing to get screened for cancer can result in it being found at a later stage, causing it to be much harder to treat and have a higher mortality rate. This is a barrier for many individuals, as they may lack the financial ability to afford tests, or they may not have easy access to health insurance.

Additionally, those whose jobs don’t provide sick leave, people in rural areas, and individuals without access to transportation could find it difficult to physically get to a doctor’s office.

Chronic Diseases: Lifestyle choices such as tobacco use, nutrition & diet, and physical activity are key factors that determine one’s risk to the four major chronic diseases: cancer, heart disease/stroke, type 2 diabetes, and lung disease. The treatment of these diseases is also largely affected by socioeconomic status, as medical costs can cause an enormous financial burden for families.

Community Health: There are many community-centered elements of health as well, these may include: healthy restaurants, healthy school lunches, smoking and tobacco policies, safe and accessible streets, housing policies, and physical activity in school.

Obesity: Obesity has been a growing issue in the United States over the past several years, and has continuously grown worse. There are many trends in the population that predict this, and obesity affects certain individuals more than others. Some factors that obesity can be correlated with are age, income, disability, education, gender, race/ethnicity and geographic region.

Oral Health: Although the nation’s oral health in general has greatly improved over the past couple of decades, not all people have equal access to these advancements. Certain racial/ethnic and socioeconomic communities suffer from worse oral health due to several social determinants of health. For example, some may not have the financial capabilities to afford out of pocket dental care, others may not have private or public dental insurance, and still others may not be able to take time off from work to receive dental care. Another factor that may impair oral health is living in a community without access to fluoridated water, healthy foods, and public transportation.

Tobacco: There are many factors that connect the use of tobacco with higher levels of disease, disability, and death in different groups. For example, the tobacco industry uses specific marketing to target certain communities. Tobacco companies use flavors to entice specific groups to try their harmful products. The pressures of discrimination, poverty, and other social conditions can increase commercial tobacco use and make health problems worse. Certain population groups lack protection from secondhand smoke. Some communities lack access to treatment for tobacco use and dependence, which is a common problem among those that consume it.

Conclusion

Health equity is the notion that every person should have equal access to a state of health and be able to obtain the resources to achieve it. Currently, this is not the case in the U.S., as there are many disadvantaged populations that have barriers to attaining healthcare resources. However, this is a complicated topic that encompasses more than just resources–many lifestyle and socioeconomic factors come into play as well.

In order to strive for health equity, healthcare systems must support inclusion and representation while battling discriminatory factors such as racism.