Health Equity Research Guide
This guide contains the following sections.
- Databases and Journals
Selected scholarly literature databases and journals available to help you find research about Health Equity. - Search Alert / Strategy
Search Strategies available for PubMed, Medline(OVID) and Scopus. - Selected Books and eBooks
- Secondary Data & Statistics
Selected sources for secondary data and statistics on Health Equity. - Websites
Selected websites and organizations where you can find more information on Health Equity.
Open Access:
- PubMedexternal icon
(1800 – Present) Comprises more than 21 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites - Global Index Medicusexternal icon
Worldwide access to biomedical and public health literature produced by and within low-middle income countries
Databases that require a CDC login to access:
Note: All databases will be hyperlinked on the website
Ovid Databases
EBSCO Databases
ProQuest Central Databases
- Public Health Databaseexternal icon
- International Newsstreamexternal icon
- US Newsstreamexternal icon
- Sociological Abstractsexternal icon
Scopus Database
Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) affiliated journals (all are Open Access):
Other Open Access Journals:
- BMC & Medical Ethicsexternal icon
- Health Equityexternal icon
- International Journal for Equity in Healthexternal icon
Other eJournals that require a CDC login to access:
- Annual Review of Public Health external icon
- Advancing in Research Ethics and Integrityexternal icon
- Clinical Ethicsexternal icon
- Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology
- Ethicsexternal icon
- Ethics & Medicineexternal icon
- Ethnicity & Diseaseexternal icon
- Ethnicity and Healthexternal icon
- Ethnicity and Inequalities in Health and Social Careexternal icon
- International Journal of Ethicsexternal icon
- Journal of African American Studiesexternal icon
- Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practiceexternal icon
- Journal of Women’s Health and Gender-Based Medicineexternal icon
- LGBT Healthexternal icon
- National Healthcare Disparities Reportexternal icon
- Poverty & Raceexternal icon
- Social Science & Medicineexternal icon
Please also consider searching journals by study population or ethnic group.
The Ovid platform includes the following databases: CAB Abstracts, Embase, Global Health, Medline, and PsycInfo.
Access to Ovid is restricted to patrons with a CDC user ID and password. Find a library near you that may be able to help you access similar resources by clicking the following links: https://www.worldcat.org/librariesexternal icon OR https://www.usa.gov/librariesexternal icon.
What is a search alert?
Want to be notified when a new article is published that matches your search? Set up a search alert! Search alerts will automatically rerun your search and email you new results on a schedule that you set. Set up search alerts for your area of research, journals, tables of contents, authors, and more.
Search alerts help you stay on top of the latest literature and save time!
Suggested search alert for Health Equity.
The following search is a basic search to use to create a search alert. For a more detailed or customized search, contact your librarian or submit a Literature Search Request.
(health* adj2 (equit* or inequit* or inequalit* or disparit* or equality)).ti,ab.
Suggested controlled vocabulary to add to the end of the keyword search:
- Embase: OR health disparity/ OR healthy equity/ OR (health care access/ AND race/) OR (“social determinants of health”/ AND vulnerable population)
- Global Health: OR health inequalities/
- Medline: OR Healthcare Disparities/ OR Health Status Disparities/ OR Health Equity/ OR (Health Services Accessibility/ AND Race Factors/) OR (Social determinants of Health/ and Vulnerable Populations/)
See detailsexternal icon for population health search strategy to combine with Health Equity terms.
Health disparity populations include racial/ethnic minorities, low socio-economic status, sexual and gender minorities, and/or others subject to discrimination who have poorer health outcomes often attributed to being socially disadvantaged, which results in being underserved in the full spectrum of health care. (https://hdpulse.nimhd.nih.gov/index.htmlexternal icon)
For a more detailed or customized search, contact your librarian or submit a Literature Search Request.
1. Login to your Ovid account. Don't have a personal account in Ovid? Learn how to create one hereexternal icon.
2. After performing your search in one of the Ovid Databases, click on Search History.
3. Check the box next to the search you would like to save. Under Actions click on Create Auto-Alert.
4. Name your saved search and set your preferences for how often you would like to be updated and in what format. You can choose to be updated monthly, weekly, or daily. Click Save at the bottom of the page.
1. Login to your Ovid account.
2. Select the database in which you created the search alert.
3. Click on Search History. In the upper right, click on View Saved.
4. Check the box next to the search you would like to change and then edit or delete it using the symbols. If you delete the search it will ask you to confirm that you would like to delete it.
1. Login to your Ovid account. Don't have a personal account in Ovid? Learn how to create one hereexternal icon.
2. After performing your search in one of the Ovid Databases, click on Search History.
3. Check the box next to the search you would like to save. Under Actions click on Create RSS.
4. Ovid automatically names your RSS feed but you can change it if you prefer. Click Save at the bottom of the page.
5. Ovid will generate a link for your RSS feed. Click on the highlighted here.
6. You can then subscribe to the RSS feed by clicking on Subscribe to this feed.
Want to be notified when a new article is published that matches your search? Set up a search alert! Search alerts will automatically rerun your search and email you new results on a schedule that you set. Set up search alerts for your area of research, journals, tables of contents, authors, and more.
Search alerts help you stay on top of the latest literature and save time!
Suggested search alert for Health Equity
(“healthcare disparities”[Title/Abstract] OR “health disparities”[Title/Abstract] OR “health equity”[Title/Abstract] OR “health inequity”[Title/Abstract] OR “healthcare inequalities”[Title/Abstract] OR “healthcare disparities”[MeSH Terms] OR “health status disparities”[MeSH Terms] OR “health equity”[MeSH Terms])
OR (“health services accessibility”[MeSH Terms] OR “health services accessibility”[Title/Abstract]) AND (“race factors”[MeSH Terms] OR “race factors”[Title/Abstract])
OR (“social determinants of health”[MeSH Terms] OR “social determinants of health”[Title/Abstract]) AND (“vulnerable populations”[MeSH Terms] OR “vulnerable populations”[Title/Abstract])
See detailsexternal icon for population health search strategy to combine with Health Equity terms.
Health disparity populations include racial/ethnic minorities, low socio-economic status, sexual and gender minorities, and/or others subject to discrimination who have poorer health outcomes often attributed to being socially disadvantaged, which results in being underserved in the full spectrum of health care. (https://hdpulse.nimhd.nih.gov/index.htmlexternal icon)
For a more detailed or customized search, contact your librarian or submit a Literature Search Request.
1. Login to your MyNCBI account. Don't have a MyNCBI account? Learn how to create one hereexternal icon.
2. After performing your search in PubMed, click on Create alert.
3. Name your saved search and set your preferences for how often you would like to be updated and in what format. You can choose to be updated monthly, weekly, or daily.
Want to watch this process? Check out the video below:
1. Login to your MyNCBI account. Don't have a MyNCBI account? Learn how to create one hereexternal icon.
2. After performing your search in PubMed, click on Create RSS.
3. Name your RSS Feed and select the number of items to be displayed. Click on the XML button to subscribe to the feed.
Access to Scopus is restricted to patrons with a CDC user ID and password. Find a library near you that may be able to help you access similar resources by clicking the following links: https://www.worldcat.org/libraries externalexternal icon OR https://www.usa.gov/librariesexternalexternal icon.
What is a search alert?
Want to be notified when a new article is published that matches your search? Set up a search alert! Search alerts will automatically rerun your search and email you new results on a schedule that you set. Set up search alerts for your area of research, journals, tables of contents, authors, and more.
Search alerts help you stay on top of the latest literature and save time!
The following search is a basic search to use to create a search alert. For a more detailed or customized search, contact your librarian or submit a Literature Search Request.
Scopus
(TITLE-ABS-KEY(“Health Services Accessibility”) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY(“Risk Factors”)) OR (TITLE-ABS-KEY(“Social determinants of health”) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY(“vulnerable populations”)) OR (TITLE-ABS-KEY(“healthcare disparities” OR “health disparities” OR “health equity” OR “health inequity” OR “healthcare inequalities”))
See detailsexternal icon for population health search strategy to combine with Health Equity terms.
Health disparity populations include racial/ethnic minorities, low socio-economic status, sexual and gender minorities, and/or others subject to discrimination who have poorer health outcomes often attributed to being socially disadvantaged, which results in being underserved in the full spectrum of health care. (https://hdpulse.nimhd.nih.gov/index.htmlexternal icon)
For a more detailed or customized search, contact your librarian or submit a Literature Search Request.
1. Login to your Scopus account. Don't have a personal account in Scopus? Learn how to create one here.
2. After performing your search, click on Set Alert.
3. Name your saved search and set your preferences for how often you would like to be updated and in what format. You can choose to be updated monthly or weekly. Click Save at the bottom of the page.
- Birn, A.-E. (2017). Textbook of global health (Fourth edition. ed.): New York, NY, United States of America : Oxford University Press. (Print)
- Emerson, E. (2014). Health inequalities and people with intellectual disabilities: Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. (Print)
- Ford, C. L. Griffith, D. M. e., Bruce, M. A. e., & Gilbert, K. L. e. (2019). Racism : science and tools for the public health professional (1st edition ed.): Washington, DC : American Public Health Associationexternal icon. (ebook)
- Killoran, A., Swann, C., & Kelly, M. P. (2006). Public health evidence : tackling health inequalities. Oxford. (Print)
- LaVeist, T. A. (2002). Race, ethnicity, and health : a public health reader (1st ed. ed.). San Francisco: San Francisco : Jossey-Bass.(Print)
- Mack, A. (2014).: Lessons from Social Movements: Workshop Summary. In N. Goel & A. Baciu (Eds.): National Academies Press.external icon(Print)
- Minkler, M. (2005). Community organizing and community building for health (2nd ed.) New Brunswick, N.J.: New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press. (Print)
- Neff, R. (2015). Introduction to the US food system : public health, environment, and equity (First edition. ed.): San Francisco, CA : Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Brand. (Print)
- National Institute for Occupational, S., & Health, N. O. H. E. P. (2017). National Occupational Health Equity Program. Cincinnati, OH : U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. (Print)
- Otto, M. (2017). Teeth : the story of beauty, inequality, and the struggle for oral health in America: New York : The New Press. (Print)
- Piot, P. (2015). AIDS between science and politics: New York : Columbia University Press. (Print)
- Plough, A. L. (2017). Knowledge to action : accelerating progress in health, well-being, and equity: New York, NY : Oxford University Press. (Print)
- Satcher, D. (2020). My Quest for Health Equity: Notes on Learning While Leading. Johns Hopkins University Press. (ebook)
- Taket, A., McKay,F. (2012). Health equity, social justice and human rights. (Print)
- Washington, H. A. (2006). Medical apartheid: the dark history of medical experimentation on Black Americans from colonial times to the present. .New York: Harlem Moon. (Print)
- CDC Health Equity Guiding Principles for Inclusive Communication
- CDC Advancing Health Equity and Preventing Chronic Disease
- CDC Minority Health and Health Equity
- CDC Health Disparities and Strategies Reports
- Health Equity: CDC Community Guideexternal icon
- HHS Office of Minority Healthexternal icon
- Medline/PubMed Health Disparities & Minority Health Information Resourcesexternal icon
- National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparitiesexternal icon
- APHA Health Equityexternal icon
- Berkeley Library Health Equity Guideexternal icon
- Climate Change, Health and Equityexternal icon
- Disparities Policy (Kaiser Foundation)external icon
- Drivers for Health Equityexternal icon
- Health Disparities by Race and Ethnicityexternal icon
- Health Disparities Calculatorexternal icon
- Health Equity in Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Training Moduleexternal icon
- Health Equity Training Modulesexternal icon
- John Hopkins Center for Health Equityexternal icon
- Multi-Cultural Resources for Health Informationexternal icon
- National Equity Atlasexternal icon
- National Academies of Health Board on Population Health and Public Health Practiceexternal icon
- National Academies Round Table Population Health Improvementexternal icon
- Racism and Healthexternal icon
Health equity is achieved when every person can “attain his or her full health potential” and no one is “disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of social position or other socially determined circumstances.” Health inequities are reflected in differences in length of life; quality of life; rates of disease, disability, and death; severity of disease; and access to treatment. (https://www.cdc.gov/healthequity/index.html)
Materials listed in these guides are selected to provide awareness of quality public health literature and resources. A material’s inclusion does not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Public Health Service (PHS), or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nor does it imply endorsement of the material’s methods or findings. HHS, PHS, and CDC assume no responsibility for the factual accuracy of the items presented. The selection, omission, or content of items does not imply any endorsement or other position taken by HHS, PHS, and CDC. Opinion, findings, and conclusions expressed by the original authors of items included in these materials, or persons quoted therein, are strictly their own and are in no way meant to represent the opinion or views of HHS, PHS, or CDC. References to publications, news sources, and non-CDC Websites are provided solely for informational purposes and do not imply endorsement by HHS, PHS, or CDC.