dc.description.abstract | Study objective: To propose a definition of health equity to guide operationalisation and
measurement, and to discuss the practical importance of clarity in defining this concept.
Design: Conceptual discussion.
Setting, Patients/Participants, and Main results: not applicable.
Conclusions: For the purposes of measurement and operationalisation, equity in health is the absence
of systematic disparities in health (or in the major social determinants of health) between groups with
different levels of underlying social advantage/disadvantage—that is, wealth, power, or prestige.
Inequities in health systematically put groups of people who are already socially disadvantaged (for
example, by virtue of being poor, female, and/or members of a disenfranchised racial, ethnic, or religious
group) at further disadvantage with respect to their health; health is essential to wellbeing and to
overcoming other effects of social disadvantage. Equity is an ethical principle; it also is consonant with
and closely related to human rights principles. The proposed definition of equity supports operationalisation
of the right to the highest attainable standard of health as indicated by the health status of the
most socially advantaged group. Assessing health equity requires comparing health and its social
determinants between more and less advantaged social groups. These comparisons are essential to
assess whether national and international policies are leading toward or away from greater social justice
in health | |