EDITORIAL
Despair on disparities
Research Unit, Fundación Española de Reumatología, Madrid, Spain
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to Dr Loreto Carmona, Unidad de Investigación, Fundación Española de Reumatología, Calle Marqués del Duero, 5, 1, 28001 Madrid, Spain; loreto.carmona@ser.es
Accepted 31 August 2009
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
In this issue of Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, Sokka et al (see page 1666), by analysing the data from the Quantitative Standard Monitoring of Rheumatoid Arthritis (QUEST-RA) cohort, with over 6000 patients from 25 countries, warn us of possible disparities in the health of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.1 This international team of researchers found a clear association between gross domestic product and the average status of the patients. We believe it is imperative to review some concepts that may help to understand the implications of these results.
Health inequalities, disparities, or variability in health, may be defined as differences in health status or in the distribution of health determinants between different population groups (ie, differences in mobility between older individuals and younger ones, or differences in death rates between social classes). It is important to distinguish them from inequities. Inequity means that the difference is unfair,
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- Disparities in rheumatoid arthritis disease activity according to gross domestic product in 25 countries in the QUEST–RA database
- T Sokka, H Kautiainen, T Pincus, S Toloza, G da Rocha Castelar Pinheiro, J Lazovskis, M L Hetland, T Peets, K Immonen, J F Maillefert, A A Drosos, R Alten, C Pohl, B Rojkovich, B Bresnihan, P Minnock, M Cazzato, S Bombardieri, S Rexhepi, M Rexhepi, D Andersone, S Stropuviene, M Huisman, S Sierakowski, D Karateev, V Skakic, A Naranjo, E Baecklund, D Henrohn, F Gogus, H Badsha, A Mofti, P Taylor, C McClinton, and Y Yazici
Ann Rheum Dis 2009 68: 1666-1672.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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