PSY 4420 W1 Assignment 4 Health Disparities
PSY 4420 W1 Assignment 4 Health Disparities
Health and health care disparities refer to differences in health and health care between groups that stem from broader inequities. There are multiple definitions of health disparities. Healthy People 2020 defines a health disparity as, “a particular type of health difference that is closely linked with social, economic, and/or environmental disadvantage” and notes that disparities, “adversely affect groups of people who have systematically experienced greater obstacles to health based on their racial or ethnic group; religion; socioeconomic status; gender; age; mental health; cognitive, sensory, or physical disability; sexual orientation or gender identity; geographic location; or other characteristics historically linked to discrimination or exclusion.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identifies health disparities as, “preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations.”
A health care disparity typically refers to differences between groups in health insurance coverage, access to and use of care, and quality of care. The terms “health inequality” and “inequity” also are used to refer to disparities. Racism, which CDC defines as the structures, policies, practices, and norms that assign value and determine opportunities based on the way people look or the color of their skin, results in conditions that unfairly advantage some and disadvantage others, placing people of color at greater risk for poor health outcomes.
Health equity generally refers to individuals achieving their highest level of health through the elimination of disparities in health and health care. Healthy people 2020 defines health equity as the attainment of the highest level of health for all people, and notes that it requires valuing everyone equally with focused and ongoing societal efforts to address avoidable inequalities, historical and contemporary injustices, and health and health care disparities. CDC defines the achievement of health equity as when every person has the opportunity to “attain his or her full health potential” and no one is “disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of social position or other socially determined circumstances.”
A broad array of factors within and beyond the health care system drive disparities in health and health care (Figure 1). Though health care is essential to health, research shows that health outcomes are driven by multiple factors, including underlying genetics, health behaviors, social and environmental factors, and access to health care. While there is currently no consensus in the research on the magnitude of the relative contributions of each of these factors to health, studies suggest that health behaviors and social and economic factors, often referred to as social determinants of health, are the primary drivers of health outcomes and that social and economic factors shape individuals’ health behaviors. Moreover, racism negatively affects mental and physical health both directly and by creating inequities across the social determinants of health.