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Ovid Medline Search Filters

Defining disparity, equity, and justice

Search filters objective

The objective of the search filters found on this page is to point to research that focuses on issues of social just, disparities, equity, and social determinants of health. Consequently, you will find a broad range of filters covering very specifically health equities & disparities to race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, SES, access to health care, and more. 

What is social justice? 

American Public Health Association (APHA) 

"Social justice is the view that everyone deserves equal rights and opportunities —this includes the right to good health. Yet today, there are inequities in health that are avoidable, unnecessary and unjust. These inequities are the result of policies and practices that create an unequal distribution of money, power and resources among communities based on race, class, gender, place and other factors. To assure that everyone has the opportunity to attain their highest level of health, we must address the social determinants of health AND equity."


"Health disparity" vs "Health equity"

From cms.gov: "...health equity means the attainment of the highest level of health for all people, where everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain their optimal health regardless of race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, geography, preferred language, or other factors that affect access to care and health outcomes."

Healthy People 2030 defines:

  • health equity as “the attainment of the highest level of health for all people. Achieving health equity requires valuing everyone equally with focused and ongoing societal efforts to address avoidable inequalities, historical and contemporary injustices, and the elimination of health and health care disparities.”
  • health disparity as “a particular type of health difference that is closely linked with social, economic, and/or environmental disadvantage. Health disparities adversely affect groups of people who have systematically experienced greater obstacles to health based on their racial or ethnic group; religion; socioeconomic status; gender; age; mental health; cognitive, sensory, or physical disability; sexual orientation or gender identity; geographic location; or other characteristics historically linked to discrimination or exclusion.”

Carter-Pokras O, Baquet C. What is a "health disparity"? Public Health Rep. 2002 Sep-Oct;117(5):426-34. doi: 10.1093/phr/117.5.426. PMID: 12500958; PMCID: PMC1497467.

Braveman P. What are health disparities and health equity? We need to be clear. Public Health Rep. 2014 Jan-Feb;129 Suppl 2(Suppl 2):5-8. doi: 10.1177/00333549141291S203. PMID: 24385658; PMCID: PMC3863701

"Health equity means social justice in health (i.e., no one is denied the possibility to be healthy for belonging to a group that has historically been economically/socially disadvantaged). Health disparities are the metric we use to measure progress toward achieving health equity."

HP 2030: About Disparities Data

  • "Healthy People 2030 includes health disparities data for population-based core objectives with available demographic group data. Health disparities are differences in health that are closely linked to social determinants of health."

Health Equity in Healthy People 2030

  • "As Healthy People has evolved over the decades to reflect the most current science and address the latest public health priorities, it has strengthened its focus on health equity. This focus is reflected in one of the overarching goals of Healthy People 2030: “Eliminate health disparities, achieve health equity, and attain health literacy to improve the health and well-being of all."

What are the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)?

From: US Dept. of Health & Human Services

"Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks."


PROGRESS-Plus equity framework

The Cochrane Handbook has an excellent chapter covering equity and specific populations. They describe the PROGRESS-Plus (Place of residence, Race/ethnicity/culture/language, Occupation, Gender/sex, Religion, Education, Socio-economic status, Social capital and other characteristics (‘Plus’) such as sexual orientation, age and disability) framework in:

Welch VA, Petkovic J, Jull J, Hartling L, Klassen T, Kristjansson E, Pardo Pardo J, Petticrew M, Stott DJ, Thomson D, Ueffing E, Williams K, Young C, Tugwell P. Chapter 16: Equity and specific populations. In: Higgins JPT, Thomas J, Chandler J, Cumpston M, Li T, Page MJ, Welch VA (editors). Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions version 6.4 (updated August 2023). Cochrane, 2023. 

See also: O'Neill J, Tabish H, Welch V, et al. Applying an equity lens to interventions: using PROGRESS ensures consideration of socially stratifying factors to illuminate inequities in health. J Clin Epidemiol 2014; 67(1): 56–64. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2013.08.005. PMID: 24189091

Social determinants of health

Study on searching the literature for SDOH

Hanneke R, Brunskill A. Searching for the social determinants of health: observations from evidence synthesis publications. Syst Rev. 2024 May 16;13(1):134. doi: 10.1186/s13643-024-02551-y. PMID: 38755700; PMCID: PMC11097542.

Article takeaways:

Searching for SDOH requires an approach that is flexible and combines multiple terms and concepts. This page has searches that focus on specific aspects of SDOH but none address all aspects of SDOH. Consider combining the broad SDOH approach (which finds ONLY those articles that specifically mention SDOH) along with specific aspects (access to healthcare, race/ethnicity, etc.) for best retrieval of studies.

Social determinants of health (Updated 23 May 2024)

Search specifically for those articles in which the authors focus on SDOH.

"Social Determinants of Health"/ or (SDOH or (determinants adj2 health) or (social adj determinants)).ti,ab,kf,kw.

Economic stability

Poverty, social class, etc. (4 September 2024)

poverty/ or "social class"/ or “social determinants of health”/ or “socioeconomic factors”/ or (((economic or economical or economically) adj2 (distress or distressed or factors)) or ((economically or socially or socioeconomically or stability or stable) adj1 disadvantaged) or income or poverty or ((social or socially or socioeconomic) adj2 (class or determinants or disparities or disparity or inequities or inequity or status))).ti,ab,kf,kw.

Search filters for disparities

Search for a broad range of disparities (Updated 13 May 2024)

This search filter includes a broad range of SDOH terms plus terms specific to disparities, justice, equity, etc. It is a very broad search and finds close to 500,000 items. 

Access to primary care/ or "Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation"/ or "Health Disparate, Minority and Vulnerable Populations"/ or Health equity/ or "Health Inequities"/ or health services accessibility/ or "health services needs AND demand"/ or "Health Status Disparities"/ or "Healthcare Disparities"/ or "Medically Underserved Area"/ or "Medicaid"/ or "Medically Uninsured"/ or Poverty/ or Child Poverty/ or Poverty Areas/ or "Right to health"/ or "Social Determinants of Health"/ or Social justice/ or "Socioeconomic Disparities in Health"/ or (SDOH or (determinates adj3 health) or disparities or disparity or inequalities or inequality or inequities or inequity or poverty or (((health adj1 care) or healthcare) adj3 (access or quality)) or Medicaid or (physician adj2 shortage*) or underserved or uninsured or ((group or groups or social or socially or status or statuses) adj1 (disadvantage or disadvantaged or justice or vulnerability or vulnerable))).ti,ab,kf,kw.

Example

(Health disparities or SDOH) + Hispanic/Latinx + cancer  + US studies filter (Requires Pitt login)

  1. access to primary care/ or "Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation"/ or "Health Disparate, Minority and Vulnerable Populations"/ or health equity/ or "Health Inequities"/ or health services accessibility/ or "health services needs AND demand"/ or "Health Status Disparities"/ or "Healthcare Disparities"/ or "Medically Underserved Area"/ or "Medicaid"/ or "Medically Uninsured"/ or Poverty/ or Child Poverty/ or Poverty Areas/ or "Right to health"/ or "Social Determinants of Health"/ or Social justice/ or "Socioeconomic Disparities in Health"/ or (SDOH or (determinates adj3 health) or disparities or disparity or inequalities or inequality or inequities or inequity or poverty or (((health adj1 care) or healthcare) adj3 (access or quality)) or Medicaid or (physician adj2 shortage*) or underserved or uninsured or ((group or groups or social or socially or status or statuses) adj1 (disadvantage or disadvantaged or justice or vulnerability or vulnerable))).ti,ab,kf,kw.
  2. ("Hispanic or Latino"/ or "Mexican Americans"/ or (((Cuban or Mexican) adj1 (American or Americans)) or Hispanic or Hispanics or Latina or Latinas or Latino or Latinos or Latinx or (Puerto adj1 (Rican or Ricans or Rico)) or (Spanish adj1 (origin or origins or speaking))).ti,ab,kf,kw.)
  3. 1 and 2
  4. exp Neoplasms/ or (Adenosarcoma* or blastoma* or cancer or cancers or carcinoma* or Carcinosarcoma* or glioma* or leukemia* or Liposarcoma or Lymphangiom* or lymphoma* or melanoma* or metastatic or myeloma* or neoplasm* or oncolog* or osteosarcoma* or sarcoma* or tumor* or tumour*).ti,ab,kf,kw.
  5. di.fs. or "Early Diagnosis"/ or "Early Detection of Cancer"/ or Mass Screening/ or Mortality/ or Mortality, Premature/ or Survival/ or Survival Rate/ or (detected or detection or diagnosis or mammogra* or mortality or screening or survival).ti,ab,kf,kw.
  6. 4 and 5
  7. 3 and 6
  8. 7 not ((exp africa/ or exp asia/ or exp australia/ or exp canada/ or exp central america/ or exp europe/ or exp south america/) not (north america/ or exp united states/))

The "not ((exp africa/ or exp asia/.....))" (Line 8) phrase can be found on the Search Limits page.


Disparities linked to access to health/healthcare

These terms focus specifically on the accessibility of health care.

Access to primary care/ or "Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation"/ or health services accessibility/ or "health services needs AND demand"/ or "Healthcare Disparities"/ or "Medically Underserved Area"/ or ((physician* adj2 shortage*) or (((health adj1 care) or healthcare or medical or medically) adj3 (access or accessibility or underserved))).ti,ab,kf,kw.

Example

Access to healthcare + Blacks/African Americans + US studies filter (Requires Pitt login)

  1. Access to primary care/ or "Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation"/ or health services accessibility/ or "health services needs AND demand"/ or "Healthcare Disparities"/ or "Medically Underserved Area"/ or ((physician* adj2 shortage*) or (((health adj1 care) or healthcare or medical or medically) adj3 (access or accessibility or underserved))).ti,ab,kf,kw.
  2. "Black or African American"/ or ((African adj1 (American or Americans or ancestry)) or (Black adj1 (American or Americans)) or Blacks or minorities or minority or race or racial).ti,ab,kf,kw.
  3. 1 and 2
  4. Mortality/ or Mortality, Premature/ or Survival/ or Survival Rate/ or (mortality or survival).ti,ab,kf,kw.
  5. 3 and 4
  6. 5 not ((exp africa/ or exp asia/ or exp australia/ or exp canada/ or exp central america/ or exp europe/ or exp south america/) not (north america/ or exp united states/))

The "not ((exp africa/ or exp asia/.....))" (Line 6) phrase can be found on the Search Limits page.