Incorporating Health Equity and Community Perspectives During COVID-19: Commonalities with Cardiovascular Health Equity Research

Abstract

<jats:p> The COVID-19 pandemic is revealing the deeply entrenched structural inequities in health that exist in the United States. We draw parallels between the COVID-19 pan­demic and our cardiovascular health equity research focused on physical activity and diabetes to highlight three common needs: 1) access to timely and disaggregated data; 2) how to integrate community-engaged approaches in telehealth; and 3) policy ini­tiatives that explicitly integrate health equity and social justice principles and action. We suggest that a similar sense of urgency regarding COVID-19 should be applied to slow the burgeoning costs and suffer­ing associated with cardiovascular disease overall and in marginalized communities specifically. We remain hopeful that the current crisis can serve as a guide for align­ing our principles as a just and democratic society with a health agenda that explicitly recognizes that social inequities in health for some impacts all members of society. Ethn Dis. 2020;30(3):421-424; doi:10.18865/ed.30.3.421</jats:p>