ArticleBMC public health2021
"The health equity curse": ethical tensions in promoting health equity.
Article in BMC public health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Findings from the Process Evaluation of a Mobile Health Clinic Designed to Improve Equity of Access to Primary Healthcare for People with Substance Use Disorders and/or Homelessness in One Region in the North East of England, UK.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Barriers and Facilitators for Equitable Clinical Research Among Pragmatic Trialists: A Qualitative Study.Pragmatic and observational research · 2026Article
- Decision tree for improving the impact of equity-focused public health service delivery and research.Frontiers in health services · 2026Article
- Interpreting in healthcare: a systematic search and mapping of ethical issues in health literature.Frontiers in public health · 2026Review
- "I would be very proud to be part of an initiative that didn't exclude people because it was hard": mapping and contextualising health equity responsibilities and decision-making tensions in the implementation of a multi-level system reform initiative.International journal for equity in health · 2025Article
- Article
- Grappling With the Inclusion of Patients and the Public in Consensus Building: A Commentary on Inclusion, Safety, and Accessibility Comment on "Evaluating Public Participation in a Deliberative Dialogue: A Single Case Study".International journal of health policy and management · 2024Article
- "A place to be safe, feel at home and get better": including the experiential knowledge of potential users in the design of the first wet service in Montreal, Canada.Harm reduction journal · 2022Article
- Navigating conflicting value systems: a grounded theory of the process of public health equity work in the context of mental health promotion and prevention of harms of substance use.BMC public health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPublic health (PH) practitioners have a strong moral commitment to health equity and social justice. However, PH values often do not align with health systems values, making it challenging for PH practitioners to promote health equity. In spite of a growing range of PH ethics frameworks and theories, little is known about ethical concerns related to promotion of health equity in PH practice. The purpose of this paper is to examine the ethical concerns of PH practitioners in promoting health equity in the context of mental health promotion and prevention of harms of substance use.
methodsAs part of a broader program of public health systems and services research, we interviewed 32 PH practitioners.
resultsUsing constant comparative analysis, we identified four systemic ethical tensions: [1] biomedical versus social determinants of health agenda; [2] systems driven agendas versus situational care; [3] stigma and discrimination versus respect for persons; and [4] trust and autonomy versus surveillance and social control.
conclusionsNaming these tensions provides insights into the daily ethical challenges of PH practitioners and an opportunity to reflect on the relevance of PH frameworks. These findings highlight the value of relational ethics as a promising approach for developing ethical frameworks for PH practice.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.