Health equity in Mexico from the perspective of sustainable human development

Abstract

Object: Know the conditions of equity in access to health during the period 2000 to 2010 that characterize the environments in which the country’s population develops, through the construction of an instrument called the Health Equity Index for Sustainable Human Development (IESADHS in Spanish), in order to determine the most inequitable states of the Mexican Republic.

Materials and methods: The IESADHS is based on 16 indicators related to the basic conditions of health, socioeconomic health processes, and health coverage, as well as access to health services and the guarantee of the right to health, health protection. The estimation process was carried out from four stages: standardization of the indicators, application of the principal component, analysis technique, application of the Linear Scaling technique (scale between 0 and 1), and application of the Optimal Stratification technique of Dalenius and Hodges (5 degrees of equity in health).

Results: The findings indicate that from 2000 to 2010, the conditions of inequality in the South and East of the country were deteriorated, and in a part of the North Center, registering important decreases in their degrees of health equity.

Conclusions: Access to health in the country takes place in environments of lack of coverage and inequity and poor management by public institutions, mainly those that provide health services.

Keywords: Equity in health; Human development; Sustainable development.