Methods for Monitoring Health Inequities

We expect to release the methodological information and data for 2-3 key health indicators in a technical report this summer. Health inequities have typically been measured using single point-in-time health data that compare a single disadvantaged group to a reference group.  For measures such as race, income, and geography, which have many categories, this leads to multiple sets of pairwise comparisons.  It may also be difficult to ascertain trends in inequities using these measures.  To address these shortcomings we have been exploring summary measures of inequities.  Using a suite of 11 measures, we have been exploring their quantitative properties and then applying these measures to King County data for key overall health indicators.  Use of these summary inequity measures provides a more nuanced view of health inequities and our progress towards eliminating these inequities.