Participants shared their views on the significance of health equity as an issue, effective ways to achieve equity within the health care system, the greatest barriers, and more.
While most health care professionals find health equity to be a significant issue, far less are optimistic about the current health care system’s ability to address equity effectively, according to a recent survey conducted by the RISE to Health Coalition, a national health equity initiative co-led by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the American Medical Association, and other industry collaborators.
The survey asked 1,400 health care professionals employed at health care-related companies about their views on health equity between August 4-9, 2023.
“The data from this survey show that the overwhelming majority of health care workers view health equity as important but suggest that many see a gap between the status quo and what the future could be,” said Kedar Mate, M.D., president and chief executive officer of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, in a statement. “Even those who recognize health equity as a priority cannot make it happen on their own. The Rise to Health Coalition was created to bring together individuals and organizations to advance health equity through coordinated and collective action to transform health care.”
Key survey takeaways include:
- When asked how significant or insignificant of an issue health equity is in our health care system today, 57.79 percent of health care professionals said it was ‘very significant’ and 24.79 percent said it was ‘somewhat significant.’
- Addressing social determinants of health (53.07 percent) was ranked as the most effective way to achieve health equity in our health care system, followed by ensuring universal access to health care services (24.79 percent), enhancing health literacy (34.29 percent), expanding training (30.07 percent), fostering a system-wide culture of improvement (23.21 percent), and increasing workforce diversity (16.64 percent).
- The top three greatest barriers to health equity in our society reported included affordability of care (51.50 percent), implicit bias in care (10.79 percent), and accessibility of care (9.71 percent).
- When it comes to health equity in the U.S., 16.29 percent of professionals feel it has improved; whereas 26.79 percent feel it has declined and 27.57 percent feel it has stayed the same.
- More than thirty percent of professionals (31.93 percent) said they think it will take six to 10 years to achieve noticeable improvements in health equity across the country. Only 3.14 percent believe it can be achieved in less than one year, 23.57 percent said one to five years, 14.29 percent said 10-15 years, and 15.43 percent said they don’t think health equity improvements will ever be made.
“The Rise to Health Coalition survey results confirm that many health professionals are open to broadening the definition of 'health' to mean one’s overall quality of life,” said Michael McAfee, EdD, president and CEO of PolicyLink, a Rise to Health Coalition partner, in the survey announcement. “It is time to capitalize on this momentum to create a society that measures health not just by a lack of disease and illness, but by access to opportunities.”