16/09/2024

A person’s health shouldn’t be determined by factors such as income, education, employment, and access to healthcare.

What are health inequalities?

Health inequalities are differences in health outcomes that exist between different groups of people. In the UK, despite significant progress in healthcare, health inequalities persist, presenting a challenge that must be addressed through collective efforts to address.¹ These disparities are closely tied to the ‘social determinants of health’ - non-medical factors that can positively or negatively influence a person’s health such as income, education, employment, housing, discrimination, and access to healthcare.²

Research has consistently shown that individuals in the most deprived parts of the country experience poorer health outcomes and life expectancy can be up to 19 years lower compared to those from more affluent backgrounds.^1,3 Furthermore, health literacy (the ability to find, understand, and use health-related information and services) has been identified as a critical factor in ill health.  Lower levels of health literacy are much more common in socially and economically disadvantaged groups.⁴

What health inequalities exist in the UK?

The UK faces a range of health inequalities that affect different regions and demographic groups. For example, individuals living in deprived areas often experience chronic diseases earlier in life and have a shorter life expectancy compared to their wealthier counterparts.^1,5 Some groups, such as Black and Asian communities, face disproportionate health challenges too. The NHS Race and Health Observatory has highlighted evidence of ethnic inequalities within healthcare settings including reduced access to health services for mental health conditions and neonatal care.⁶ Poor experiences in the healthcare system are driving further inequalities for some groups who sometimes fear secondary care and are reluctant to seek out hospital care.^6,7

How are health inequalities being tackled?

While the challenge of health inequalities remains significant, action is being taken across the healthcare system and beyond to address the causes and improve outcomes. The UK government and the NHS have recognised the urgency of addressing health inequalities and poor health literacy, implementing various initiatives to tackle these disparities. The NHS Long Term Plan places a strong emphasis on prevention and early intervention, aiming to reduce health inequalities by promoting healthier lifestyles and providing targeted support to disadvantaged groups.⁸

The UK government has committed to reducing health inequalities through its social and economic policies. This includes initiatives aimed at prevention (driving down smoking rates and measures to address obesity, for example), increasing  educational attainment, improving the quality of health and care services, better housing, employment support, reducing poverty, and investing in deprived communities.^3,9,10,11  Programmes such as NHS England’s Core20-PLUS5 are also targeting the most deprived 20% of the national population, ‘plus’ minority communities and has five clinical areas of focus (maternity, severe mental illness, chronic respiratory disease, early cancer diagnosis and hypertension).¹² By addressing the underlying social determinants of health, these initiatives aim to create a fairer society where everyone has an equal opportunity to lead a healthy life.

The recognition of health inequalities as a pressing issue by the government and the NHS is an important step towards addressing health disparities. It’s clear that adopting a holistic approach that goes beyond the healthcare sector is key to improving the nation's health. Collaboration between government departments, local authorities, community organisations, and individuals is vital to address the social determinants of health comprehensively.

What is Pfizer doing to reduce health inequalities?

At Pfizer, we believe that our medicines and vaccines should be equally accessible by everyone. That’s why it’s so important that we understand the health and care challenges being faced by patients in the UK and try and raise awareness of these issues.

In 2022 we launched a ‘Cancer Insights Panel’.¹³ Bringing together around 30 cancer patients of different age, ethnicity, gender, social, economic and geographical backgrounds to identify areas where cancer care can be improved. Not only has the panel enabled us to gain a better understanding of people’s cancer journeys but it also uncovered a variety of inequalities in care. One such example being shared by a visually impaired patient who faced multiple issues when navigating the healthcare system, including a consultant not wanting a guide dog in their consultation room, to lack of awareness of the issues faced by visually-impaired people which made attending appointments particularly challenging.¹³

Similarly, from working with the sickle cell community we have learnt of racial and socioeconomic inequalities within the healthcare system for some groups, which we have been helping bring to the attention of policy makers to create change.^14,15 Listen to the podcast here.

We have supported some specific projects that contribute to health literacy. Firstly, through our Superbugs school programme, helping to drive understanding of antimicrobial resistance amongst school children and secondly through making improvements to our own patient-facing materials. During a study we co-funded in 2023, only 32% of patients surveyed completely understood the information provided with their prescription medicine.¹⁶ This highlighted the need to ensure that the health information we provide is easier to understand. As a result, we adopted the Patient Information Forum 10-point criteria for creating trustworthy, accurate, up-to-date information and have been certified as a trusted health provider.¹⁷

To further support cancer care services, in late 2023 we created a cancer heatmap, providing a useful illustration of the geographical locations for cancer waiting times across England.¹⁸ And more recently in 2024, we launched a whitepaper calling for access to more data to help tackle inequalities in breast cancer care across England and Scotland.^19,20 This information is vital to ensure collaborative efforts to tackle geographical inequalities are focused in the right areas across the country.

Future focus

Whilst health inequalities persist in the UK, there are positive changes being made to bridge the gap. By addressing the root causes of health inequalities, promoting equal access to opportunities, and improving health literacy, we can strive towards a fairer future where everyone has an equal chance to lead a healthy life.