Expanding the Lens From Health Outcomes to Learn More About Key Stakeholders and the Structural Factors as a Pathway Toward Health Equity

Abstract

Comparatively worse health outcomes persist for historically underserved populations relative to their more privileged peers due to systemic health inequities in the United States and worldwide. The relationship between preventable health differences and social injustice is salient, with recurring media coverage of viral outbreaks and televized court cases of police brutality bringing it to public attention. Rather than waiting for social determinants of health to be explicit in health interventions, an evaluator can use their interest in equity as an entry point. Similar equity-driven strategies were chosen in each case summary, resulting in capacity development, new community perspectives, and measurement of conditions supporting health equity.