Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity
2017
Consensus
In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health.
Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways.
Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.
Additional materials
- Press Release
- Sector Brief - Hospitals and health systems
- Recommendations
- Conceptual Model
- Communities in Action Highlights (Comic)
- Infographics: Communities in Action
- Sector brief - Civil rights strategies (pdf)
- Sector Brief - Business (pdf)
- Sector Brief - Communities (pdf)
- Sector Brief - Business Opportunities
- Sector Brief - Root Causes
- Public Briefing Presentation
- Sector Brief - Universities (pdf)
- Sector Brief - Tools for Communities
- Sector Brief - Education (pdf)
- Sector Brief - Transportation (pdf)
- Sector Brief - Transportation for Health Equity
- Sector brief - Faith-based organizations
- Communities in Action: Get Started
- Sector Brief - Civil Rights Strategies
- Sector Brief -- Philanthropy
- Sector brief: Land Use and Housing
- Sector Brief - Education for Health Equity
- Sector Brief: Public Health
- Sector Brief: Government
- Sector Brief: Research
- Sector Brief - Faith Based Organizations
- Sector Brief - Anchor Institutions
- Sector Brief: Land Use and Housing (Spanish)
- Sector Brief: Education (Spanish)
- Sector Brief: Communities (Spanish)
- Sector Brief: Civil Rights (Spanish)
- Sector Brief: Faith-Based Organizations (Spanish)
- Sector Brief: Root Causes of Health Inequity (Spanish)
Publication information
582 pages
·
6 x 9
·
paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-45296-1
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-45297-X
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/24624
Suggested citation
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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