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Health Inequities: Closing the Disparities Gap in the Aging Population
Book chapter

Health Inequities: Closing the Disparities Gap in the Aging Population

Juliana M. Mosley-Williams and Melissa A. Vitek
A Comprehensive Guide to Safety and Aging, pp 367-378
2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003197843-31

Abstract

Advance Care Planning Montreal Cognitive Assessment Home Safety Evaluations Femoral Neck Fractures World Health Organization Global Strategy Poor Nutritional Habits SDOH Ethnic Health Disparities Addiction Service Providers NORC World Health Organization's Step Driving Rehabilitation Specialists Central Visual Field Loss National Academy Health Disparities Coronary Artery Calcification Influence Individual's Health Health Disparities Research Leisure Time Physical Activity Levels Progressive Disease Falls Risk Screening Common Geriatric Syndrome Reducing Health Disparities Public Health Engagement Self-perceived Health Status
Although health disparities exist across the entire lifetime continuum, they are often magnified in the older population due to cumulative effects of social determinants of health. Strategies aimed at reducing health disparities by addressing social determinants of health are important to improving outcomes for older patients. However, there are issues specific to this population such as new information on the process of aging, ageism, resource allocation, and the aggregate effects of lifelong exposure to discrimination that also needs to be incorporated when implementing solutions specifically targeted at the elimination of health disparities for members of our older population. This chapter defines individual and social determinants of health, ageism, and their collective impact on health outcomes. An emerging theory on aging as it relates to disease manifestation is introduced. Finally, systematic frameworks and approaches for improved aging and health experiences for older members of our population are defined and discussed. These include increasing awareness of the impact of bias and discrimination, expanding diversity among health care providers, promoting policies that utilize a "proportional universalism" to resource allocation, listening with empathy, embracing a life-course perspective in data collection and application, fostering messaging that appeals to one's sense of justice, and cultivating a sense of inclusiveness and belonging. America is aging and health care is advancing, yet inequities and disparities continue to plague the health care system and impact this already vulnerable population. This chapter defines individual and social determinants of health, ageism, and their collective impact on health outcomes. It introduces an emerging theory on aging as it relates to disease manifestation, and discusses systematic frameworks and approaches for improved aging and health experiences for older members of the population. The chapter provides an overview of the factors that lead to health disparities in older patients and identifies strategies to reduce those disparities. Health disparities research related to aging is the study of biological, behavioral, sociocultural, and environmental factors that influence population-level health differences. Institutional racism can also harm health through stigma, stereotypes, and prejudice, which can be factors to stagnate socioeconomic mobility and reduce access to societal resources and opportunities required for health.

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