[Implicit value judgments in the measurement of health inequalities].
نویسندگان
چکیده
CONTEXT Quantitative estimates of the magnitude, direction, and rate of change of health inequalities play a crucial role in creating and assessing policies aimed at eliminating the disproportionate burden of disease in disadvantaged populations. It is generally assumed that the measurement of health inequalities is a value-neutral process, providing objective data that are then interpreted using normative judgments about whether a particular distribution of health is just, fair, or socially acceptable. METHODS We discuss five examples in which normative judgments play a role in the measurement process itself, through either the selection of one measurement strategy to the exclusion of others or the selection of the type, significance, or weight assigned to the variables being measured. FINDINGS Overall, we find that many commonly used measures of inequality are value laden and that the normative judgments implicit in these measures have important consequences for interpreting and responding to health inequalities. CONCLUSIONS Because values implicit in the generation of health inequality measures may lead to radically different interpretations of the same underlying data,we urge researchers to explicitly consider and transparently discuss the normative judgments underlying their measures. We also urge policymakers and other consumers of health inequalities data to pay close attention to the measures on which they base their assessments of current and future health policies.
منابع مشابه
Lies, Damned Lies, and Health Inequality Measurements
Measuring and monitoring socioeconomic health inequalities are critical for understanding the impact of policy decisions. However , the measurement of health inequality is far from value neutral, and one can easily present the measure that best supports one's chosen conclusion or selectively exclude measures. improving people's understanding of the often implicit value judgments is therefore im...
متن کاملCommentary: Value Judgments in Health Inequality Measurement
Commentary V alue judgments lurk beneath the surface in any study of health inequalities; analysts ought to understand them, make them explicit, and present results transparently to poli-cymakers so that they, rather than analysts, decide which set of value judgments should be invoked. that is the key message of the paper " Lies, Damned Lies, and Health Inequality measurements " 1 Kjellsson et ...
متن کاملRe: Lies, Damned Lies, and Health Inequality Measurements: Understanding the Value Judgments.
Measuring and monitoring socioeconomic health inequalities are critical for understanding the impact of policy decisions. However, the measurement of health inequality is far from value neutral, and one can easily present the measure that best supports one's chosen conclusion or selectively exclude measures. Improving people's understanding of the often implicit value judgments is therefore imp...
متن کاملThe Position of Implicit and Indirect Learning in Ethical Education
The rationalist approach has been dominated on the education environment of values for many years. Unilateral and excessive focus on this approach has revealed ignorance of a vast part of human implicit learning and his intuitive ethical judgments which have been the source of many ethical behaviors. The study intends to answer the question that why only direct and deductive educations about va...
متن کاملنابرابری بهداشتی با منشا اقتصادی-اجتماعی و شاخصهای اندازهگیری آن در مطالعات اپیدمیولوژی
The term "health inequalities" is not a descriptive one: it refers to discrepancies in morbidity and mortality, life expectancy, disability life adjusted years, etc that are due to differences in such factors as socioeconomic status, gender and race/ethnicity. Socio-economic inequalities are the differences in health status (e.g. disease prevalence and incidence rates) across various socio-econ...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید
ثبت ناماگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید
ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- The Milbank quarterly
دوره 88 1 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2010