ArticleBMC global and public health2024
Investigating inconsistencies regarding health equity in select World Health Organization texts: a critical discourse analysis of health promotion, social determinants of health, and urban health texts, 2008-2016.
Article in BMC global and public health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- From rhetoric to reality: organisational practices of health equity in Switzerland.International journal for equity in health · 2025Article
- What opportunities exist for the governance of private sector engagement in mixed health systems in the African Region?Journal of global health · 2025Article
- How do World Health Organization technical officers working on noncommunicable diseases approach health equity?International journal for equity in health · 2025Article
- Assessing health equity inconsistencies in the World Health Organization's Urban HEART initiative: findings from key informant interviews.BMC public health · 2025Article
- How do high-level African directors of policy and planning operationalize health equity? Findings from a regional survey.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Conceptually mapping how investing in essential public health functions (EPHFs) and common goods for health (CGH) can improve health system performance.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- The quest for equity in global health is underpinned by neocolonial discourses: A critical discourse analysis.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Health equity and distributive justice: views of high-level African policymakers.BMC medical ethics · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundScholarly critiques have demonstrated that the World Health Organization (WHO) approaches the concept of health equity inconsistently. For example, inconsistencies center around measuring health inequity across individuals versus groups; in approaches and goals sought in striving for health equity; and whether considerations around health equity prioritize socioeconomic status or also consider other social determinants of health. However, the significance of these contrasting approaches has yet to be assessed empirically.
methodsThis study employs critical discourse analysis to assess the WHO's approaches to health equity in select health promotion, social determinants of health, and urban health texts from 2008 to 2016.
resultsWe find that the WHO: (i) usually measures health equity by comparing groups; (ii) explicitly specifies three approaches to health equity (although we identified additional implicit approaches in our analysis of WHO discourses); and (iii) considers health equity inconsistently both in terms of socioeconomic status and other social determinants of health, but socioeconomic status was given substantially more attention than other individual social determinants of health.
conclusionsThere is misalignment with the WHO's stated approaches to tackle health inequity and its discourses around health equity. This incongruence increases the likelihood of pursuing short-term solutions and not sustainably addressing the root causes of health inequity. Critical discourse analysis' focus on power allows for understanding why 'radical' approaches are not explicitly expressed to ensure that governments will be agreeable to addressing health inequity.
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