The burdens of disease and the benefits of good health are inequitably distributed in the U.S. due to factors that range from poverty and inadequate housing to structural racism and discrimination, according to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.1
“Those already burdened with poverty are additionally harmed by worse health, representing a fundamental lack of fairness in our nation,” says Tia Powell, MD, a member of the committee that conducted the health equity study and wrote the report. Powell is division head of biomedical and bioethics research training in the department of epidemiology and population health at Bronx, NY-based Montefiore Medical Center.
Community-driven interventions targeting these factors hold the greatest promise for promoting health equity, according to the report. “For communities to improve health outcomes, policies and interventions must recognize that differences in health are not primarily the result of individual choice,” says Powell.
Rather, they reflect the effect of uneven access to benefits like access to transportation, jobs, education, healthy food, and safe and clean places to live and work. “Honestly addressing the systematic causes and likely solutions to achieve health equity can help provide fair opportunities for success to more Americans,” says Powell.
REFERENCE
- National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. Communities in action: Pathways to health equity. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
SOURCE
- Tia Powell, MD, Biomedical and Bioethics Research Training, Department of Epidemiology & Population Health, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY. Phone: (718) 920-4630. Fax: (718) 920-4989. Email: [email protected].
The burdens of disease and the benefits of good health are inequitably distributed in the U.S. due to factors that range from poverty and inadequate housing to structural racism and discrimination, according to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
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