Monitoring socioeconomic determinants for healthcare disparities: Tools from the public health disparities geocoding project

Abstract

Adding insult to injury. This well-worn phrase redounds with new significance when considering healthcare disparities in the context of social inequalities in health. The very same social groups at greatest risk of being subjected to inadequate access to and unequal treatment in healthcare also endure the greatest risk of poor health status and premature mortality, reflecting the daily toll of discrimination, economic deprivation, political marginalization, and prioritization of economic gain over human needs (1-3). Greater need and lesser care nefariously combine to create even more onerous burdens of preventable suffering, for it is within the very same bodies that these injuries and insults are integrated and embodied (4). © 2007 Humana Press Inc.