What is Health Equity? (And 3 Main Ways to Achieve it)

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What is health equity?

The answer to this question, which has strong implications for Latino and other minority populations, is part of a new series of infographics from the Health Equity Institute at San Francisco State University.

Infographic 1 defines health equity as “efforts to ensure that all people have full and equal access to opportunities that enable them to lead healthy lives” and identifies a framework to show how social, economic, and environmental conditions affect health and health equity in a number of ways.

To achieve health equity, we must treat everyone equally and eliminate avoidable health inequities and health disparities.

Health inequities (Infographic 2) are health differences “that are avoidable, unfair, and unjust.”

Health disparities (Infographic 3) are health differences in health among groups of people.

For example, Latinos are less likely to receive advice from a health provider to quit smoking than White adults, and smokers have 2-4 times greater odds of developing heart disease.

So what can we do?

Three main actions needed, according to Infographic 4.

1. ACCESS to high quality healthcare.

2. PROVIDE equal social and economic opportunities.

3. INVEST in and revitalize low-income neighborhoods.

Learn more here or watch this video.