scholarly journals Understanding Health Equity: Key Concepts, Debates, and Developments in Canada

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Attia Khan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Health Equity ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Canadian Context ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Taking Action ◽  
Political Economy Approach

Health inequalities exist and persist due to the quality and distribution of the social determinants of health, i.e., the day to day circumstances people live in. These circumstances are determined by governing policies and practices which are influenced by the State’s political ideology and its socio-economic structures. Using a political economy approach, this paper takes a critical review of the literature on health equity in the Canadian context and clarifies key concepts pertaining to health equity and human rights. Findings of this review show that Canada has been performing poorly in addressing growing health inequalities, in part because of Canada’s increasingly neo-liberal stance on public health over the last decade. This paper will argue that a human rights framework can offer a concrete tool for restructuring public policies and for taking action against these inequalities. By placing health equity on the policy agenda, Canada can help reduce social and income inequalities and optimize the health of its populations.

scholarly journals The Health Equity Network of the Americas: inclusion, commitment, and action

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Arachu Castro ◽  
Rocío Sáenz ◽  
Ximena Avellaneda ◽  
Carlos Cáceres ◽  
Luiz Galvão ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Health Equity ◽  
Social Epidemiology ◽  
Population Movements ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
Migrant Populations ◽  
Intervention Models ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Right ◽  
Street Dwellers

The Health Equity Network of the Americas (HENA) is a multidisciplinary network that promotes knowledge sharing and intersectoral action for equity in health and human rights in the Americas. The objectives of HENA are: 1) to share successful experiences in the development of interventions, considering the social determinants and determination of health, to achieve participatory and community-based health responses; 2) to analyze the health, social, political, environmental and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic; 3) to identify the effects of pandemic care on populations most at risk because of their age and pre-existing health conditions; 4) examine the situation at borders and population movements in the spread of the pandemic and its effects on migrant populations; 5) propose strategies to ensure access to comprehensive care for pregnant women in order to reduce maternal and neonatal suffering, morbidity, and mortality; and 6) analyze violations of human rights and the right to health of historically marginalized populations, including street dwellers and other communities that depend on public spaces and the street for survival. The analytical and intervention models for health equity at HENA are based on various approaches, including social medicine, social epidemiology, medical anthropology, human ecology, and One Health.

Health Difference, Disparity, Inequality, or Inequity—What Difference Does It Make What We Call It?

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Braveman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Health Equity ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Health Inequality ◽  
Social Disadvantage ◽  
The Past ◽  
Health Differences ◽  
Technical Issues

Over the past two and a half decades, distinct approaches have been taken to defining and measuring health inequalities or disparities and health equity. Some efforts have focused on technical issues in measurement, often without addressing the implications for the concepts themselves and how that might influence action. Others have focused on the concepts, often without addressing the implications for measurement. This chapter contrasts approaches that have been proposed, examining their conceptual bases and implications for measurement and policy. It argues for an approach to defining health inequalities and health equity that centers on notions of justice and has its basis in ethical and human rights principles as well as empirical evidence. According to this approach, health inequality or disparity is used to refer to a subset of health differences that are closely linked with—but not necessarily proven caused by—social disadvantage. The term “inequity,” which means injustice, could also be used, but arguments are presented for using it somewhat more sparingly, for those inequalities or disparities in health or its determinants that we know are caused by social disadvantage.

scholarly journals Towards a national health equity monitoring strategy

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
G Costa ◽  
N Zengarini ◽  
M Marra
Keyword(s):  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Longitudinal Studies ◽  
Health Equity ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
National Level ◽  
Differential Mortality ◽  
Area Deprivation ◽  
Italian Population ◽  
Monitoring Strategy ◽  
The Social

Abstract The 2017 Italian Review on health inequalities identified two main needs with regards to Italian health equity monitoring. (1) The need to collect a social covariate at individual level in each health information system at local, regional and national level. Such a social covariate is fundamental for monitoring if any avoidable inequality in access, use, quality of care and health outcome is occurring at local, regional, national level. (2) The need to re-engineer and frame the different health equity monitoring surveys already established into an explicit health inequalities monitoring strategy (HIMS). Both challenges are accounted for by Italy in the Joint Action Health Equity Europe workplan. As for the social covariate, a pilot project is conducted. Data from 2011 census (education and area deprivation) and the national identification code used to link individual data on health and services utilization in four representative regions is linked. This will allow monitoring the social variation in selected performance indicators by region, across regions and through time. As for HIMS, previous research projects have designed and successfully piloted different models of low-cost data linkage for already established longitudinal studies. Now these pilot results will evolve into a national HIMS. As a first step, a special project of consensus building will be implemented among institutional partners responsible for the following national longitudinal studies based on record linkage: a) Work Histories Italian Panel followed up prospectively for health outcomes; b) Italian Longitudinal Study: 2000, 2015, 2013 Health Interview Surveys followed up prospectively for health outcomes; c) differential mortality 2011-2017 in the 2011 censused Italian population; d) the network of the metropolitan and regional census based longitudinal studies followed up prospectively for mortality disease registries and health care utilization. Experiences gained will be shared and discussed.

Glossary of health equity in the context of environmental public health practice

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (9) ◽  
pp. 806-809 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Rideout ◽  
Dianne Oickle
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Equity ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Health Inequities ◽  
Environmental Public Health ◽  
The Social ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
Canadian Context ◽  
Public Health Practitioners

Health equity is increasingly present as an overarching goal in public health policy frameworks across the globe. Public health actions to support health equity are challenging because solutions to the root causes of health inequities often lie outside of the health sector, and a specific role for environmental public health practitioners has not been clearly articulated. The regulatory nature of the environmental public health profession means that their role is particularly ambiguous. Still, environmental public health practitioners are well situated to identify and respond to factors that contribute to health inequities because of their role as front-line professionals who interact with a wide cross-sector of the population. This Glossary, rooted primarily in the Canadian context but drawing on lessons from elsewhere, describes environmental public health regulatory practice in relation to health equity, including approaches that practitioners can use to contribute to addressing the social determinants of health.

Social Representations and Commitment

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Bonetto ◽  
Fabien Girandola ◽  
Grégory Lo Monaco
Keyword(s):  
Social Representations ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Second Line ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
First Line ◽  
Research Perspectives ◽  
The Social ◽  
Bibliographic Search ◽  
English Articles

Abstract. This contribution consists of a critical review of the literature about the articulation of two traditionally separated theoretical fields: social representations and commitment. Besides consulting various works and communications, a bibliographic search was carried out (between February and December, 2016) on various databases using the keywords “commitment” and “social representation,” in the singular and in the plural, in French and in English. Articles published in English or in French, that explicitly made reference to both terms, were included. The relations between commitment and social representations are approached according to two approaches or complementary lines. The first line follows the role of commitment in the representational dynamics: how can commitment transform the representations? This articulation gathers most of the work on the topic. The second line envisages the social representations as determinants of commitment procedures: how can these representations influence the effects of commitment procedures? This literature review will identify unexploited tracks, as well as research perspectives for both areas of research.

On Measuring the Social Opportunity Cost of Labour in the Presence of Tariffs and an Informal Sector (The Distinguishedl Lecture)

1992 ◽  
Vol 31 (4I) ◽  
pp. 535-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ali Khan
Keyword(s):  
Informal Sector ◽  
Opportunity Cost ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Open Letter ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Action Project ◽  
Relevant Group ◽  
Net Benefits ◽  
The Individual

Harberger introduced his influential 1971 essay with the following words. This paper is intended not as a scientific study, nor as a review of the literature, but rather as a tract - an open letter to the profession, as it were - pleading that three basic postulates be accepted as providing a conventional framework for applied welfare economics. The postulates are: (a) The competitive demand price for a given unit measures the value of that unit to the demander; (b) The competitive supply price for a given unit measures the value of that unit to the supplier; and (c) When evaluating the net benefits or costs of a given action (project, programme, or policy), the costs and benefits accruing to each member of the relevant group (e.g., a nation) should normally be added without regard to the individual(s) to whom they accrue.

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