M4 L2 Health Disparities and Health Equity

What is Health Equity?

Health equity is achieved when every person has the opportunity to “attain his or her full health potential,” and no one is disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of social position or other socially determined circumstances. Healthy People 2030 further states, “Achieving health equity requires valuing everyone equally with focused and ongoing societal efforts to address avoidable inequalities, historical and contemporary injustices, and the elimination of health and health care disparities”

Image that reflects the difference between equality and equity

(Equality, Equity, Liberation image source: https://healthiertogetheroregon.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Healthier-Together-Oregon_fullplan-1.pdf

Health inequities are often reflected in differences in various health outcomes, including length of life; quality of life; rates of disease, disability, and death; severity of disease; and access to treatment.

As you have just read, population-level factors, such as the physical, built, social, and policy environments, can have a greater impact on health outcomes than individual-level factors. The root causes of health inequity can be directly linked to a failure to address these population-level factors – often referred to as social determinants of health.

To achieve health equity, we must change the systems and policies that have resulted in the generational injustices that give rise to racial and ethnic health disparities. Over the past decade, momentum to address social determinants of health (SDOH) and health equity increased. Landmark reports and national initiatives argue for the implementation of research, policies, and programs that address SDOH to reduce health disparities, which are differences in health outcomes and their causes among groups of people.

What are Health Disparities?

According to the CDC, health disparities are preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or in opportunities to achieve optimal health experienced by socially disadvantaged racial, ethnic, and other population groups and communities. 'Healthy People 2030,' the initiative described earlier from the Department of Health and Human Services, further defines health disparities as “a particular type of health difference that is closely linked with social, economic, and/or environmental disadvantage. Health disparities adversely affect groups of people who have systematically experienced greater obstacles to health based on their racial or ethnic group; religion; socioeconomic status; gender; age; mental health; cognitive, sensory, or physical disability; sexual orientation or gender identity; geographic location; or other characteristics historically linked to discrimination or exclusion.” (https://health.gov/healthypeople/priority-areas/health-equity-healthy-people-2030)

Communities Hardest Hit by COVID-19

The population health impact of COVID-19 has dramatically exposed the longstanding inequities that have systematically undermined the physical, social, economic, and emotional health of racial and ethnic minority populations and other population groups that bear a disproportionate burden of COVID-19.

Persistent health disparities combined with historic housing patterns, work circumstances, and other factors have put members of some racial and ethnic minority populations at higher risk for COVID-19 infection, severe illness, and death. As we began to learn more about the impact of COVID-19 on the health of different populations at the start of the pandemic, it was clear that immediate action was needed to reduce growing COVID-19 disparities among those known to be at disproportionate risk.

While the inequities seen during the COVID-19 pandemic shone a glaring light on the disparities in exposure risk, access to testing, management of illness/access to treatment, and even access to vaccination in the early days of ‘mega-site’ vaccine clinics, these disparities are not new. They have been long identified in the outcomes of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, cancers, and others, maternal/child health complications and mortality, and management of communicable disease outbreaks.

The chart below highlights the population vs. distribution of total COVID-19 cases since January 2020 in New Jersey.*

Graph showing rates of COVID-19 from January 2020 through June 2023

SOURCE - Updated June 2023 https://healthequitytracker.org/exploredata?mls=1.covid-3.34

*28.7% of COVID-19 cases reported an unknown race or ethnicity in the United States. The chart above only displays data for cases where race and ethnicity were both known.

Activity: Social Determinants of Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic

In their issue brief Tracking Social Determinants of Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) provides an overview of how adults are faring across an array of measures of social determinants of health as of March 2 – March 14, 2022, based on data from the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, which was designed to quickly compile data about how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted people’s lives.

In April of 2022, The Kaiser Family Foundation - KFF - developed the Issue Brief titled 'Tracking Social Determinants of Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic', presented in the frame below. (*Note: You'll need to click 'Accept' near the bottom of the frame, which contains the article!)

STEP 1: Read through this brief, noting two areas in particular: First, note Figure 1, Social Determinants of Health, paying attention to the broader list of conditions that can influence health outcomes in individuals - and, on a broader scale, communities.

STEP 2: Be sure to dive into the data presented in Figure 2, titled Share of Adults that Experienced Hardships by Selected Demographics, March 2 – March 14, 2022. Use the drop-down menu to see how varied hardships impacted individuals from different demographic groups.

STEP 3: Answer the three questions below the KFF frame by reviewing the appropriate metric and data.

Data-Driven Question #1:

Which population category most Used Savings to Meet HH Spending Needs?

Ages 18 - 25

Correct! Young adults were most likely to 'eat up' their savings during the pandemic.

Ages 45 - 64

Incorrect - although this age bracket needed to use their savings, they are not the group that most used their savings during the pandemic

NH Black

Incorrect - although this population needed to use their savings, they are not the group that most used their savings during the pandemic

NH White

Incorrect - although this population needed to use their savings, they are not the group that most used their savings during the pandemic

Check Answer

Data-Driven Question #2

Which population had the highest percentage of members Experience Loss of Employment Income?

Males

Response text to display when this answer is selected.

NH Asian

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Hispanic

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All Adults

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Data-Driven Question #3

Which group had the highest percentage of its population Borrow from Friends or Family to Meet HH Spending Needs?

Age 26 - 44

Response text to display when this answer is selected.

NH Black

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Women

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Hispanic

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Check Answer

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