AOFAS On the Same Page: Inequities in Pediatric Care-Health Equity Peds Ortho

Health Equity Peds Ortho

Pdf Summary

The document, "A Health Equity Primer: Understanding and Addressing Inequities in Pediatric Orthopaedics," highlights the necessity of addressing health disparities in pediatric orthopaedic care, exacerbated by sociopolitical events and the COVID-19 pandemic. It advocates for orthopaedic professionals to understand the nuances between health equity, equality, and intersectionality to identify and tackle disparities effectively. The paper explores how various factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, insurance status, health literacy, language, nutrition, disability, and environmental safety influence healthcare access and outcomes.<br /><br />Key terms are defined to set the foundational understanding: health equity entails fair opportunities for health, while equality involves providing identical resources to everyone. Intersectionality, rooted in Black feminist scholarship, emphasizes how overlapping identities affect individual experiences of privilege and discrimination, thereby influencing healthcare barriers.<br /><br />The review discusses research that highlights disparities in access and outcomes within pediatric orthopaedics, in contexts such as race-based pain management disparities, barriers faced by LGBTQIA populations, and the influence of insurance type on surgical care access. It stresses that future studies should adopt an intersectional approach to better capture the complexity of patient experiences.<br /><br />To combat these inequities, the paper recommends actionable strategies including improving communication with clear and inclusive language, enhancing language accessibility with professional interpreters, adjusting scheduling practices to be more accommodating, embracing telehealth while being mindful of digital accessibility disparities, and consciously addressing implicit biases in clinical interactions. The overarching goal is to fortify interpersonal and structural practices to heighten the quality and equity of care.<br /><br />The document concludes that achieving equitable care involves a continuous effort to integrate socially-informed practices into patient interactions and broad advocacy to reshape policies that govern healthcare access.

Keywords

health equity

pediatric orthopaedics

health disparities

intersectionality

sociopolitical events

COVID-19 pandemic

healthcare access

implicit biases

telehealth

policy advocacy