ArticleThe Milbank quarterly2010
Implicit value judgments in the measurement of health inequalities.
Article in The Milbank quarterly, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 147 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
147 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Systematic comparison of household income, consumption, and assets to measure health inequalities in low- and middle-income countries.Scientific reports · 2024Pooled it
- Systematic review of the effectiveness of the health inequalities strategy in England between 1999 and 2010.BMJ open · 2022Pooled it
- Addressing equity in interventions to reduce air pollution in urban areas: a systematic review.International journal of public health · 2014Pooled it
- Impact of selective evidence presentation on judgments of health inequality trends: an experimental study.PloS one · 2013Trial
- Three Decades of Socioeconomic Inequality in India's Breastfeeding Indicators, 1993-2021.Maternal & child nutrition · 2026Article
- Moving beyond the average: a method to measure health related-inequalities within randomised trials.International journal for equity in health · 2026Article
- Racial/Ethnic Disparity Among Persons Newly Diagnosed with HIV in New York State.AIDS and behavior · 2026Article
- Changes in Racial Disparities in Viral Suppression Among People with HIV from 2013-2020: A Statewide Cohort Study.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Article
- Methodological Design Choices Can Affect Air Pollution Exposure Disparity Estimates: A Case Study on California's Agricultural Sector.Environmental science & technology · 2026Article
- Whose Knowledge Counts? Considering Gender, Sexuality, and Race in Description, Prediction, and Causal Inference in Oral Epidemiology.Advances in dental research · 2026Article
- Socioeconomic inequities in alcohol-attributable mortality by sex/gender and age in Canada: a 13-year population-representative cohort study.American journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Integration of social determinants of health in quality indicators for colorectal cancer surgery: a scoping review.EClinicalMedicine · 2025Review
- Advancing equitable and sustainable urban health.Nature medicine · 2025Review
- The Unheeded Layers of Health Inequity: Visible Minority and Intersectionality.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Court-mandated redistricting and disparities in infant mortality and deaths of despair.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Centering Equity in Evidence-Informed Decision Making: Theoretical and Practical Considerations.The Milbank quarterly · 2025Article
- Centering Health Equity in an Increasingly Digital Environment.Perspectives in biology and medicine · 2025Article
- A Review of the Causal Decomposition Framework for Modeling Interventions that Reduce Disparities.Current epidemiology reports · 2025Article
- Rethinking the methodology of global indexes for equitable evidence-informed policy towards sustainable development.Journal of global health · 2024Article
- Identification of Chronic Hypertension in Pregnancy in Three Administrative Data Sources Among Medicaid-Funded Births in California.Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety · 2024Article
87 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Abstract
contextQuantitative estimates of the magnitude, direction, and rate of change of health inequalities play a crucial role in creating and assessing policies aimed at eliminating the disproportionate burden of disease in disadvantaged populations. It is generally assumed that the measurement of health inequalities is a value-neutral process, providing objective data that are then interpreted using normative judgments about whether a particular distribution of health is just, fair, or socially acceptable.
methodsWe discuss five examples in which normative judgments play a role in the measurement process itself, through either the selection of one measurement strategy to the exclusion of others or the selection of the type, significance, or weight assigned to the variables being measured.
findingsOverall, we find that many commonly used measures of inequality are value laden and that the normative judgments implicit in these measures have important consequences for interpreting and responding to health inequalities.
conclusionsBecause values implicit in the generation of health inequality measures may lead to radically different interpretations of the same underlying data, we urge researchers to explicitly consider and transparently discuss the normative judgments underlying their measures. We also urge policymakers and other consumers of health inequalities data to pay close attention to the measures on which they base their assessments of current and future health policies.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.