Summary Measures of Health Inequality: A Review of Existing Measures and Their Application

Anne Schlotheuber and Ahmad Reza Hosseinpoor
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Anne Schlotheuber: Department of Data and Analytics, World Health Organization, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland
Ahmad Reza Hosseinpoor: Department of Data and Analytics, World Health Organization, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 6, 1-25

Abstract: Measuring and monitoring health inequalities is key to achieving health equity. While disaggregated data are commonly used to assess differences in health between different population subgroups, summary measures of health inequality also play a vital role in monitoring health inequalities. Building on disaggregated data, they quantify the level of inequality in a single number and are useful to compare inequality over time and across different health indicators, programmes and settings. We provide a comprehensive overview of existing summary measures of health inequality, including their definition, calculation, interpretation and application. The use of these measures is illustrated based on an example from the WHO’s Health Equity Monitor database using the WHO’s Health Equity Assessment Toolkit (HEAT) software. We discuss the strengths and limitations of different measures and provide guidance for selecting suitable summary measures for analysing health inequalities and communicating results. Summary measures of health inequality should form an integral part of health inequality monitoring to inform equity-oriented policies and programmes.

Keywords: health equity; health inequality; summary measures; measurement; monitoring (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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