Glossary

We are building a glossary giving examples of all the terms used in managing health services in the 21st Century. The Glossary is based on a set of principles derived from those people who have spent their lives in the pursuit of  understanding how the meaning of words can best be represented.

 

Equality and equity

1.         “These terms used as synonyms by some authors.

‘The reduction of health inequalities is a focus of many national and international health organisations. The need for pragmatic evidence based approaches has led to the development of a number of evidence based equity initiatives. This paper describes a new program that focuses on upon evidence based tools, which are useful for policy initiatives that reduce inequities’.”

Source:  Tugwell, P. et al  (2006).  Reduction of inequalities in health ; assessing evidence based tools.  Int J Equity in Health 5: 1  doi 10.1186/1474-9276-5-11.

2.         “It is important to distinguish between two similar-sounding, but quite different, concepts:  “equality” and “equity”.   The former implies equal shares of something;  the latter, a “fair” or “just” distribution, which may or may not result in equal shares.”

Source:  Rice, T.   (1998)   The Economics of Health Reconsidered.   Health Administration Press, Chicago  (P.152).