I have been trying to get a better understanding of some of the fundamental forces that can drive health inequity. On a broad level, the social factors that can influence access to healthcare include the conditions in which people live each day, such as where people live and work or the environments in which children learn and play. Housing is just one particular example. Access to healthy housing and neighborhood conditions can foster health equity. However, a segregated neighborhood in which a significant number of people are deprived of key resources, for instance, can have a negative influence on health inequity and can create health disparities within a given population. While social disadvantages often have an observable short-term effect on health, they can also impact wellbeing in the long-term. In other words, exposure to a certain social condition early in life can manifest in disparities in adulthood. In addition, exposure to such conditions can accumulate over time, meaning that every experience that an individual has can have the potential to change their health trajectory throughout life.

The behavioral choices that people make ultimately impact their health outcomes. Take physical activity, for instance. Parents coming from different neighborhoods likely have different sets of concerns regarding their children’s physical activity. A parent living in a rough inner-city community might consider that although being active outdoors is healthy for children and helps them avoid developing chronic diseases like obesity, there exist other risks or dangerous circumstances that children might face by playing outdoors in that community. However, for someone living in a safer, suburban neighborhood, the possible consequences of playing outside are less apparent and the benefits of activity are more obvious. This results in different sets of decisions being made regarding health-promoting behaviors like exercise, which ultimately causes disparities in health outcomes between various groups based on their housing situations.