Using household surveys and other information sources to study health equity in Latin America and the Caribbean.

1 Division of Health and Human Development, Public Policy and Health Program, Pan American Health Organization, Washington, D.C., United States of America. Send correspondence to: J. Norberto W. Dachs, Pan American Health Organization, Washington, D.C., United States of America; e-mail: [email protected] Most of the papers on health equity in this issue of the Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública/Pan American Journal of Public use household survey data as the primary source to study various dimensions of health inequalities (1–5), and the same can be said of most of the other current literature on health inequalities. Overwhelmingly, household surveys are the sources of data to study inequalities in health status as well as to examine access to and utilization of health care services. What is the reason for this? Are these data from household surveys reliable? How can this important source of information be improved in order to better understand inequalities in health? Are there surveys that can be used to study inequalities in health in all the Latin American and Caribbean countries? How expensive are these surveys? This piece seeks to answer these questions.