Health inequalities

How it is used

The usual British term; American texts often say 'health disparities'. Policies aim to reduce, tackle or narrow health inequalities. Many writers keep the word 'inequities' for differences that are unfair and avoidable.

Example sentences

1. Health inequalities between the richest and poorest areas have widened over the past decade.

2. Reducing health inequalities is one of the five aims of the strategy.

Common collocations

• reduce health inequalities
• tackle health inequalities
• widening health inequalities
• health disparities

Related terms

• health equityThe situation in which everyone has a fair chance to be as healthy as possible, with no avoidable or unfair differences in health between social groups.
• social gradientThe pattern in which health gets steadily better at each step up the social ladder, so that not only the poorest but everyone below the top has worse health than those above them.
• social determinants of healthThe conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, such as income, education, housing and employment, which strongly shape their health.
• socioeconomic statusA person's or group's position in society based on a combination of income, education and occupation, often used to compare health between social groups.
• life expectancyThe average number of years a person of a given age can expect to live if current death rates stay the same, most often reported as life expectancy at birth.

More terms: Social Determinants and Equity

• access to healthcare
• vulnerable groups
• food insecurity