OVERVIEW

The Center for Health Equity is a new and hopeful approach to the public's health. Seeking out root causes, the Center for Health Equity addresses glaring socio-economic and racial inequities in health.  While drugs, diet, a healthy lifestyle, and medical technologies are important there is much more to our health than bad habits, health care or genes. The social conditions, into which we are born, live and work, profoundly affect our well-being and longevity. 

As Harvard epidemiologist David Williams points out, investing in our schools, improving housing, integrating neighborhoods, providing better jobs and wages, giving people more control over their work… these are as much health strategies as smoking, diet, and exercise.

The Center for Health Equity supports projects, policies, and research indicating that health and longevity are correlated with socioeconomic status. Further we recognize research that supports the fact that people of color face an additional burden. Solutions lie not in more pills or better genes, but in better social policies.

BACKGROUND

The Center for Health Equity was established by Dr. Adewale Troutman, director of the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness, in June of 2006. For more information about the Center for Health Equity contact us at 502-574-6616.