Global report on health equity for persons with disabilities
The report.
In 2022, the World Health Organization wrote a report about health equity for people with disabilities around the world.
What is health equity?
Health equity means that everyone has a fair chance to be as healthy as possible. No one should find it harder to get health care because of who they are.
This means there should be no unfair, avoidable, or changeable differences in the health outcomes of groups of people.
What the report says.
The report says that people with disabilities have worse health outcomes than other people. This means they do not have health equity.
The health outcomes include:
- Mortality – people with disabilities are more likely to die young than other people.
- Morbidity – people with disabilities have higher rates of physical and medical health conditions than other people.
- Functioning – people with disabilities face more barriers in their environments that limit their day-to-day activities and participation in society, than other people.
These poor outcomes are especially bad for people with intellectual disabilities.
What causes bad health outcomes?
People with Down syndrome are genetically more likely than others to have some health issues. Our ‘About Down syndrome‘ pages talk about common issues in child health and adult health.
However, most of the health issues that people with Down syndrome face can be treated or managed.
There are many external causes of the poor health outcomes that people with Down syndrome have. These causes are the same for other people with disabilities, although people with intellectual disabilities are among the worst affected.
The World Health Organization report highlights some of these causes:
- Structural factors – for example, stigma and discrimination, or inadequate policies and processes.
- Social factors – for example, living in poverty or transport not being accessible.
- Risk factors – for example, not being physically active or having a poor diet.
- Issues with health systems – for example, badly trained health professionals or poor-quality health services.
What can be done to improve health outcomes?
Improving health outcomes is the responsibility of the government of each country. This is in line with the international commitments described above.
The World Health Organization report outlines 40 actions that can be taken to improve health outcomes for people with disabilities.
Our health equity project.
We are working with Humanity & Inclusion to learn about health equity for people with Down syndrome and intellectual disabilities.
We want better health outcomes for everyone.