Health equity: A concept analysis

Background: Although health equity is critically important for healthcare delivery, there are inconsistencies in its definitions or lack of definitions. Purpose: Develop a comprehensive understanding of health equity to guide nursing practice and healthcare policy.Method: Walker and Avant's concept analysis method was used to establish defining attributes, antecedents, consequences, and empirical referents of health equity.Findings: Health equity defining attributes are grounded in ethical principles, the absence of unfair and avoidable differences, and fair and just opportunities to attain a person's full health potential. Health equity antecedents are categorized into environmental; financial or economic; law, politics, and policy; societal and structural; research; and digital and technology.Discussion: Health equity's antecedents are useful to distinguish health disparities from health outcomes resulting from individual preferences. To achieve health equity, organizations need to focus on addressing the antecedents.(c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).