Intersectionality in health equity research

The covid-19 pandemic highlighted deep rooted societal inequities and their causes because of its disproportionate effects on certain groups, including people living in deprived areas and ethnic minorities.1 Most of the early research into covid-19 focused on single categories of social identity and social position—for example, ethnic differences in risk of death—while adjusting for the confounding influence of other categories, such as deprivation or occupation.2

Research methods that examine these categories separately conceal heterogeneity within populations and fail to account for combinations of, or “intersections” between, the multiple social characteristics that define an individual’s place within society.34 Healthcare policy, systems of care, and research may consequently overlook overlapping systems of discrimination and disadvantage, and exacerbate and conceal health inequities.5 Intersectionality is a theoretical framework for tackling this limitation, and scholars have called for this approach to be adopted more widely.6