A road map for population health and health equity research

Population health refers to “the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group.” It is inherently linked to health equity, the state in which, “everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible.”Population health research is multidisciplinary and includes “the study of the conditions that shape distributions of health within and across populations, and of the mechanisms through which these conditions manifest as the health of individuals.” Just as population health is linked to health equity, so too is population health research linked to health equity research. Health equity research requires consideration of domains (eg, biological, sociocultural) and levels (eg, individual, interpersonal, community, societal) of influence and impact. With a focus on power structures and inequitable conditions, health equity researchers seek to promote community strengths and interventions to eliminate gaps across equity dimensions (eg, race, ethnicity, language, sex, class).

This Viewpoint discusses the 4P’s Road Map for population health and health equity research.