Health Disparities

Health disparities are systematic differences in health status, disease burden, and access to care between social groups defined by characteristics such as race, ethnicity, class, gender, disability, sexuality, or geography. The term is widely used in public health and policy, particularly in the United States, to describe gaps that are linked to disadvantage and are often regarded as avoidable. Bruce Link and Jo Phelan’s fundamental cause theory argues that social conditions persist as drivers of health inequality because people with greater knowledge, money, power, and prestige can use these resources to avoid risks and secure better treatment. Michael Marmot’s Whitehall studies revealed a social gradient in health across the occupational hierarchy, while the Black Report in Britain documented persistent class inequalities in mortality. Nancy Krieger developed ecosocial theory to show how discrimination and social structures become embodied biologically, and David Williams has researched the health effects of racism and stress. Arline Geronimus’s weathering hypothesis proposes that chronic hardship accelerates physical decline in marginalized groups. Health disparities remain central to research on inequality, discrimination, environment, and policy aimed at improving population health.