Rich people have better health than the poor: Health equity in an unequal world

Many accept as inevitable that the rich have better health than the poor; at the same time, many would view this as contravening social justice. This topic was discussed between experts from diverse disciplines at a colloquium on 15th November 2024 in Hong Kong, jointly organized by the Institutes of Health Equity of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and University College London. To address health equity, there need to be indicator(s) that consist of health data, disaggregated by age groups, gender, and measures of deprivation, that are regularly collected. Social determinants of health that give rise to health inequalities need to be documented, to enable measures to be developed to counter such inequalities in the presence of wealth disparities. Such measures include government policies covering health, social, and other areas such as housing, transport, urban planning etc. Civil society also has an important role in mitigating health inequalities, particularly in societies with a steep gradient in wealth, such as Hong Kong.