CONGRESS 2023 - Tackling health inequality – a lesson learned from COVID-19 pandemic
Health inequalities are unfair and avoidable differences in health across the population, and between different groups within society. Health inequalities arise because of the conditions in which we are born, grow, live, work and age. These conditions influence our opportunities for good health, and how we think, feel and act, and this shapes our mental health, physical health, and wellbeing. The COVID-19 shone harsh light on the pre-existing health inequalities which persist in our society. It has become increasingly clear that COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on many who already face disadvantage and discrimination. The impact of the virus has been particularly detrimental on people living in areas of high socio-economic deprivation, on people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic minority communities and those with a learning disability. In England, there is a 19-year gap in healthy life expectancy (whether we experience health conditions or diseases that impact how long we live in good health) between the most and least affluent areas of the country, with people in the most deprived neighbourhoods, certain ethnic minority and inclusion health groups getting multiple long-term health conditions 10 to 15 years earlier than the least deprived communities, spending more years in ill health and dying sooner. The Biomedical Sciences have a significant and pivotal role to play in narrowing the health inequalities gap through Research, Innovation and Life Sciences and its extensive reach across clinical practice within the NHS.
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Health inequalities are unfair and avoidable differences in health across the population, and between different groups within society. Health inequalities arise because of the conditions in which we are born, grow, live, work and age. These conditions influence our opportunities for good health, and how we think, feel and act, and this shapes our mental health, physical health, and wellbeing. The COVID-19 shone harsh light on the pre-existing health inequalities which persist in our society. It has become increasingly clear that COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on many who already face disadvantage and discrimination. The impact of the virus has been particularly detrimental on people living in areas of high socio-economic deprivation, on people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic minority communities and those with a learning disability.
In England, there is a 19-year gap in healthy life expectancy (whether we experience health conditions or diseases that impact how long we live in good health) between the most and least affluent areas of the country, with people in the most deprived neighbourhoods, certain ethnic minority and inclusion health groups getting multiple long-term health conditions 10 to 15 years earlier than the least deprived communities, spending more years in ill health and dying sooner.
The Biomedical Sciences have a significant and pivotal role to play in narrowing the health inequalities gap through Research, Innovation and Life Sciences and its extensive reach across clinical practice within the NHS.