Inequalities

The health-related characteristic of a country’s subpopulations—such as groupings of people at the district or state level—can vary widely. Policymakers urgently need a way to tease out the distinctions in health status between different groups in order to target policies and funding in a way that is maximally beneficial and equitable. In response, IHME is working on approaches for analyzing these disparities in order to illuminate the diversity of health needs within different populations. In practice, IHME incorporates its inequalities work predominately into the relevant overall streams of research. For example, the Mortality research team has undertaken a study of inequalities at the district level in India in under-five mortality. This work has focused on the differential impact of socioeconomic factors and the provision of important maternal and child health interventions.

There are several other prominent areas in which IHME is undertaking specific research to understand the disparities that exist and the factors causing them. Amongst them are:

  • The Disease Control Priorities Project will assess the cost effectiveness of not just interventions overall by region, but also determine which interventions are most cost-effective in the poorest populations in the world.
  • County-level disparities in mortality, key causes of death, and select risk factors are being investigated for the United States.
  • Additional subnational analyses of disparities in India are likely, including causes of death at the district level.
  • Health outcomes and effective coverage at the subnational level in Iran are being examined.
  • The GBD Study will attempt to generate estimates that assess the impact of socio-economic status on burden more clearly than has been done in the past.

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