WHO report: Health inequities shortening lives by decades

A global report published by the World Health Organization (WHO) highlights that the underlying causes of ill health  often stem from factors beyond the health sector, such as lack of quality housing, education and job opportunities.

The World report on social determinants of health equity shows that such determinants can be responsible for a dramatic reduction of healthy life expectancy, sometimes by decades,in high and low-income countries alike.

“Our world is an unequal one. Where we are born, grow, live, work and age significantly influences our health and wellbeing,” says WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“But change for the better is possible. This world report illustrates the importance of addressing the interlinked social determinants and provides evidence-based strategies and policy recommendations to help countries improve health outcomes for all.”

The report underscores that inequities in health are closely linked to degrees of social disadvantage and levels of discrimination. Health follows a social gradient whereby the more deprived the area in which people live, the lower their incomes are and they have fewer years of education, poorer health, with less number of healthy years to live. These inequities are exacerbated in populations that face discrimination and marginalization.

One of the vivid examples is the fact that Indigenous Peoples have lower life expectancy than non-Indigenous Peoples in high- or low-income countries alike.

WHO emphasizes that measures to address income inequality, structural discrimination, conflict and climate disruptions are key to overcoming deep-seated health inequities. Climate change, for example, is estimated to push an additional 68–135 million people into extreme poverty over the next five years.

WHO calls for collective action from national and local governments and leaders within health, academia, research, civil society, alongside the private sector to:

• address economic inequality and invest in social infrastructure and universal public services;
• overcome structural discrimination and the determinants and impacts of conflicts, emergencies and forced migration;
• manage the challenges and opportunities of climate action and the digital transformation to promote health equity co-benefits; and
• promote governance arrangements that prioritize action on the social determinants of health equity, including maintaining cross-government policy platforms and strategies, allocating money, power and resources to the most local level where it can have greatest impact, and empowering community engagement and civil society.