Authors: Frederick J. Zimmerman, Nathaniel W. Anderson

Publication Year: 2019

Last Updated: 2019-10-04

Journal: Journal of the American Medical Association

Keywords: Health equity, Social determinants of health, SDOH, Health inequality, Health justice, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, BRFSS

Abstract:

Importance  Health equity is an often-cited goal of public health, included among the 4 overarching goals of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy People 2020. Yet it is difficult to find summary assessments of national progress toward this goal.

Question  Has health equity improved or worsened during the past 25 years in the United States among working-aged adults?

Main Outcomes and Measures  Health equity was assessed separately for each of 2 health constructs: healthy days—the average of physical and mental healthy days over the previous 30 days—and general health in 5 categories, rescaled to approximate a continuous variable. For each health construct, average health was calculated along with 4 measures of health equity: disparities across 3 income groups; black-white disparities; health justice—a measure of the correlation of health outcomes with income, race/ethnicity and sex; and a summary health equity metric.

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Source: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2736934