Published 3 September 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1526
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1526

Editorials

Tackling health inequities

WHO report calls for global action to ensure health equity within and between countries

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Finally, an official report on health inequity has been published that has the honesty and courage to say that "social injustice is killing people on a grand scale."1 The report of the World Health Organization’s Commission on Social Determinants of Health synthesises evidence from a large and disparate range of sources, while recognising that what constitutes evidence is itself contested and not value free.2 It presents a wealth of data to show the unquestionable link between economic, social, and bodily wellbeing—within and across countries. In the case of life expectancy, these embodied facts of social inequity3 can span the equivalent of a lifetime: women born in Botswana can anticipate living an average of 43 years, half that of the 86 years for women in Japan; between the poorest and most affluent parts of Glasgow life expectancy in men ranges from 54 to 82 years.

Many official reports have documented social . . . [Full text of this article]

George Davey Smith, professor of clinical epidemiology1, Nancy Krieger, professor2

1 Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2PR, 2 Department of Society, Human Development, and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA

George.Davey-Smith@bristol.ac.uk


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