Unit 5 Discussion: Social Epidemiology

Health equity is a common topic among epidemiologists and policy makers. As noted in an article in the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics, “health equity can be defined as the absence of disadvantage to individuals and communities in health outcomes, access to health care, and quality of health care regardless of one’s race, gender, nationality, age, ethnicity, religion and socioeconomic status (Ransom, 2011).”

With consideration to social epidemiology, use the ECPI Online Library or the Internet to research one or more examples of health inequities. Post a discussion in your own words of an example of a health inequity. Include what policy you would implement to improve health outcomes for this disparity. Your example must be supported by facts and your policy recommendation should be detailed to include “what, when, where and who”. A bad example of writing a policy recommendation is: “to increase the rate of prostate screening in minority men I will propose we do more screenings.” You should describe what organization(s) will perform the screening program, how it would be funded, who is your target population, what would be your quantitative goal, and what method of screening (exams, blood test,…) would be used. Remember to cite your sources and include the URLs.