Race and Health Equity 1

Race and Health Equity

April Verge

University of Texas at Arlington

KINE 4353: Public Health Culminating Experience

Brandie Green PhD, MPH

March 28, 2021

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Race and Health Equity

Over the years, researchers have concentrated on socioeconomic status and individual

health behaviors as underpinning determinants of populations. However, self-identified race

or ethnicity has not been exploited fully, despite being a major influencer. This justifies the

need to eradicate racial inequalities (White et al., 2020). However, researchers are in

agreement that new dimensions on race need to be incorporated into such studies. The most

underpinning of these is socially-assigned race. Exploring both the self and socially-assigned

racial affiliations broadens the scope of study on the impact of social race construction on

health and health care. This is equally important because, unlike self-identified racism, the

socially-assigned race is objective. Also, the shared lived experiences between members of a

particular race limit researchers in identifying the impact of race on health equity (White et

al., 2020).

The relationship between race and health equity is marred with the perceived

inequalities that blacks undergo. Reports of bizarre police shooting at blacks have promoted

the bias (Kindig, 2017). However, a deeper insight into the subject reveals that a significant

proportion of whites, like some blacks, also grapple with health inequalities. According to a

scoping review conducted by White et al. (2020), the results indicate that socially-assigned

people who are associated with a low-status profile have a lower health quality (White et al.,

2020). This implies that the health indicators that are less likely studied have a significant

impact on health as well. Therefore, more studies on these areas should be conducted. For

example, according to Zimmerman et al. (2019), the gap between the inequalities between

whites and blacks has significantly improved between the years 1993 and 2017. However, the

metrics on health equity and justice faced a significant reduction during the same period. It

means that society may be suffering from more recent population health problems like

measuring health inequalities but is busy combating the general gap between races. Kindig
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(2017) also highlights that poor health is not only limited to blacks or other people of color. It

is a construct that cuts across.

According to Kindig (2017), there is the need to end discriminatory social policies

that lead to racial disparities in population health. The researcher also mentions factors such

as education, income, employment, access to health care, and population public health as

important factors in reducing these inequalities. As a backing to the same, White et al. (2020)

mention race and ethnicity as external classifications that predispose one to unfair treatment

by the rest of society. The impact is greater when the racial/ethnic group has a history of

being negatively stereotyped. These unequal opportunities hinder there being a health equity

framework in healthcare. According to many scholars, socially-assigned racism is closely

related to institutionalized racism, which predisposes the victims to discrimination (White et

al., 2020). Other factors that contribute to such discrimination include the historical and

political aspects of a population. Identifying these policies is the first step in ending them,

hence reducing the impact of racial factors on health equity.

To realize health equity, a system of health justice needs to be pursued by

policymakers. According to Zimmerman et al. (2019), such initiatives require a concerted

effort amongst stakeholders in diverse fields like education and criminal justice. Kindig

(2017) also highlights that health policies that favor the poor across the races could be more

effective than racial gaps. This way, every citizen will see the attainment of Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s health equity goal whereby every individual should

have an opportunity to attain full health status. Also, the fact that the demographic patterns in

the US are changing leads to more opportunities to understand the complexity of racial

constructs (White et al., 2020). These trends are also changing across the globe.
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References

White, K., Lawrence, J. A., Tchangalova, N., Huang, S. J., & Cummings, J. L. (2020).

Socially-assigned race and health: a scoping review with global implications for

population health equity. International journal for equity in health, 19(1), 25.

Kindig, D. (2017). Population health equity: rate and burden, race and class. Jama, 317(5),

467-468.

Zimmerman, F. J., & Anderson, N. W. (2019). Trends in health equity in the United States by

race/ethnicity, sex, and income, 1993-2017. JAMA network open, 2(6), e196386-

e196386.