Health Disparities-Health Equity

Question 1

Health Disparity as an Initiative

Answer 1

overdue attention to disparities in the health care of racial and ethnic minorities

Began to highlight the link between social policies and health outcomes and disparity (what are the systems, policies, structures that contribute to health outcomes and disparities?)

Heightened efforts to educate all stakeholders both in/outside of healthcare

Question 2

Response from the health care and policy communities included initiatives to:

Answer 2

standardize treatments for racial and ethnic minorities

develop and improve providers’ cultural competency

increase minority representation among healthcare professionals

Question 3

Health Disparity

Answer 3

a particular type of health difference that is closely linked with economic, social, or environmental disadvantage

adversely affect groups of people who have systematically experienced greater social or economic obstacles to health based on:
- racial or ethnic group
- religion
- socioeconomic-status
- gender
- age
- mental health
- cognitive, sensory, or physical disability
- sexual orientation
- gender identity
- geographic location

Question 4

Health Equity

Answer 4

the principle underlying a commitment to reduce—and, ultimately, eliminate— disparities in health and in its determinants, including social determinants

Pursuing health equity means striving for the highest possible standard of health for all people and giving special attention to the needs of those at greatest risk of poor health, based on social conditions

(lifestyle choice vs social condition)

Question 5

Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)

Answer 5

“conditions in the places where people live, learn, work, and play that affect a wide range of health risks and outcomes”

Question 6

Place-based framework: outlines five key areas of SDOH

Answer 6

Healthcare Access and Quality- access to primary care, health insurance
coverage, health literacy

Education Access and Quality- language and literacy, early childhood education, high school graduation

Social and Community Context- e.g. workplace conditions, community cohesion, civic participation

Economic Stability- e.g. food security, housing stability, poverty

Neighborhood and Built Environment- access to transportation, access to
healthy food/air/water, neighborhood crime levels

Question 7

Why is this important?

Answer 7

A large body of evidence strongly links economic and social disadvantage with avoidable illnesses, disability, suffering, and premature death

Economic/social disadvantage can be ameliorated by social policies:
> minimum wage laws

> progressive taxation

> statutes that ban discrimination in housing/employment based on race, gender, disability, or sexual orientation

Question 8

Bottom line: Human rights

Answer 8

implicit obligation to pay particular attention to those segments of the population who experience the most social obstacles

Question 9

The right to health:

Answer 9

Health care access and quality

Education

Health-promoting physical and social conditions

A standard of living necessary to protect and promote health

Question 10

Health Disparity and COVID-19

Answer 10

Black patients (Milwaukee hospital) were
* 5.4 times more likely than those of other races to test positive

Those living in poverty were
* 3.8 times more likely to be hospitalized

Poor patients had a
* 3.6 times higher odds of requiring intensive care

rather than validating long-debunked hypotheses about intrinsic biological susceptibilities among non-White racial groups, the evidence to date reaffirms that
structural racism is a critical driving force behind COVID-19 disparities

Question 11

VERMONT

Answer 11

Contributing factors to these disparities include “systemic and structural racism, socioeconomic disadvantage, historical injustice, and oppressive systems that affect the conditions in which people are born, grow, live and work”

some of the actions Vermont must take include focusing on primary prevention efforts, engaging with communities, as well as funding racial justice initiatives and partnering with racial justice advocacy organizations to reduce health disparities

Question 12

Risk Factors for Severe Illness w/ COVID-19

Answer 12

• Increased age
• Cancer
• Chronic kidney disease
• COPD
  *Heart conditions
• Immunocompromised state
• Obesity
• Severe Obesity
• Pregnancy
• Sickle cell disease
• Smoking
• Type 2 diabetes mellitus