Health Equity Measurement

Addressing the social determinants of health to help build fairer, healthier, and more sustainable communities for all.
EuroHealthNet is a not-for-profit partnership of organisations, agencies and statutory bodies working on public health, disease prevention, promoting health, and reducing inequalities.

Large inequalities in health status and life expectancy exist across population groups and within the OECD countries. These inequalities in health status are linked to many factors, including differences in exposure to health risk factors and in access to health care.

The quest for equity is a persistent challenge for health systems in the Region of the Americas.

In the Region of the Americas, evidence exists on how the SDH [social determinants of health] influence a wide range of health outcomes and efforts towards universal health, as reflected in both the development of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the ways in which they were pursued by countries.

Equity in health is a cardinal expression of social justice, attained when every individual has the opportunity to reach his full health potential and no one is excluded or hindered from reaching that potential because of his social status or other socially determined circumstances.

The Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) was established by WHO in March 2005 to support countries and global health partners in addressing the social factors leading to ill health and health inequities.

Equity is the absence of avoidable, unfair, or remediable differences among groups of people, whether those groups are defined socially, economically, demographically or geographically or by other means of stratification. "Health equity” or “equity in health” implies that ideally everyone should have a fair opportunity to attain their full health potential and that no one should be disadvantaged from achieving this potential.

Monitoring health inequalities is crucial to identify differences in health between different population subgroups. This provides evidence on who is being left behind and informs health policies, programmes and practices that aim to close existing gaps and achieve health equity.

Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a practical approach used to judge the potential health effects of a policy, programme or project on a population, particularly on vulnerable or disadvantaged groups.

The social determinants of health (SDH) are the non-medical factors that influence health outcomes. They are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life. These forces and systems include economic policies and systems, development agendas, social norms, social policies and political systems.