Defining Health Equity and Key Steps to Achieving Greater Health Equity

This RWJF report defines health equity and identifies crucial elements to guide effective action to reduce disparities in health status. Also included in the report are alternative definitions of health equity for different audiences that may have varying backgrounds and perspectives, and examples of specific terms that often arise in discussions around the concept.

The Issue

Health equity surrounds and underpins all of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Culture of Health Action Areas and the goal of a society in which everyone has an equal opportunity to live the healthiest life possible.  

Simply put, “health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be healthier. This requires removing obstacles to health such as poverty, discrimination, and their consequences, including powerlessness and lack of access to good jobs with fair pay, quality education and housing, safe environments, and health care.”