Confronting Health Inequity: The Global Dimension

Abstract

Since the days of Hippocrates, health inequities and the role of social and environmental factors in the determination of marked differences in health status have been well recognized. For some time now, the driving force behind public health has been understanding and intervening in the underlying causes of health inequity. The publication of the Black Report1 in the United Kingdom in 1980 brought a more focused approach to this discourse by identifying specific factors, such as social class, gender, and race/ethnicity, as the social and economic determinants of health inequities. With this evolution came a conceptual and operational distinction between health disparities/inequalities and health inequity/equity. These distinctions aside, the issue of health inequity has moved beyond the academic discourse into the arena of policy and action.