Equity Analysis Research Articles

Equity analysis audit of access and utilisation of Special Care Dental Services by ethnicity and social demographic markers.

To identify and investigate any differences in utilisation of the, Sussex Community NHSFT, Special Care Dental Service (SCDS) across multiple demographic factors, including ethnicity, socio-economic groups and age in the Crawley area. Data were audited for all new patients seen at the Crawley Special Care Dental Centre from November 2020-October 2021. Demographic data were compared to population data from the 2011 Census. Deprivation data, using Index of Multiple Deprivation, were also examined against utilisation and failure to attend appointments. A total of 1250 new patients accessed the Crawley SCDS between November 2020 and October 2021. The data suggests good equity to the service being utilised by the local community; the proportions of patients utilising the service over the course of a year from different ethnic groups reflected the demographic profile of Crawley. The proportion of failed appointments showed no correlation with deprivation decile. There was also no association between ethnic group and proportion of failed appointments. Ensuring equal utilisation of healthcare for all population groups has become a priority for healthcare providers. This audit found minimal inequities in utilisation of the Special Care Dental Service at Crawley.

Evaluating Social Equity of Transit Accessibility: A Case of Salt Lake County, U.S.

Addressing social equity in public transportation remains a key challenge for many cities and planning organizations. In this study, we examined social equity dimensions of accessibility to light rail transit (LRT) stations in Salt Lake County, U.S., by employing two novel methods. First, we used the two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method to examine the interactions between the demand and supply of the public transit service. Second, we developed geospatial models to account for spatial bias in transit equity analysis. Results showed little evidence of inequitable access to LRT stations in Salt Lake County. The accessibility to LRT stations appeared to be generally higher in the downtown and transit catchment areas with a higher concentration of low-income and ethnic minority populations. Furthermore, we found statistically significant associations between higher transit accessibility and households which are not homeowners, and/or do not own a private motor vehicle. Our findings suggest that transit investments in Salt Lake County could leverage substantial transportation accessibility opportunities to achieve an equitable and sustainable future.

Incorporating Job Competition and Matching to an Indicator-Based Transportation Equity Analysis for Auto and Transit in Dallas-Fort Worth Area

Transportation equity is a vital but vague issue for planners and engineers in the United States, where mobility-based transportation planning has triggered the disproportionate distribution of benefits and burdens in the transportation system. Previously, transportation equity studies have evaluated equity using different transportation service metrics and socio-demographic factors. Job accessibility is one principal metric for transportation quality as it directly relates to a community’s economic prosperity. While most equity studies analyze aggregate accessibility for a single mode, our study measures blue-collar and white-collar job accessibilities for automobile and transit by incorporating job proximity, competition, and matching, using the Dallas-Fort Worth area as a case study. Using Lorenz curve, Gini coefficient, and Atkinson measure, we performed horizontal and vertical equity (within and between groups) studies and compared various population groups by disaggregating the population based on the two most cited environmental justice indicators, namely, income and race. Our findings suggest that (a) job accessibility by transit mode has higher inequalities compared with automobile, (b) white-collar and blue-collar jobs have similar inequality levels, (c) low- and high-income populations experience somewhat the same inequality levels, and (d) inequality is highest among African American communities, (e) blue-collar job accessibility has higher inequality for Hispanic and Asian communities for both transportation modes and (f) the disparities in job accessibility are greater between racial groups than income groups in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. To address such disparities, planners must enhance transit availability through subsidizing transit costs and transit feeder services like on-demand shared services.

Arbitragem envolvendo o Poder Público e a solução por equidade: por que o medo?

The purpose of this paper is to bring a provocation: is the rule that forbids the judgment of equity in arbitrations involving the Public Administration necessary? Starting from the analysis of equity in its various conceptions, and arbitration as a method of dispute resolution that honors the specialty, flexibility and timeliness, we identify an almost symbiotic relationship between the institutes. In this order of ideas, forbidding the equitable solution for public arbitrations can both undermine what is best in the DNA of arbitration, as well as eliminate an important attraction to the choice of this method by the Administration, which would lose competitiveness when acting as a true player in the market.

Equity Market Price Prediction Forecast and Analysis with Technical Indicators and Diversification Analysis Using Deep Learning Technique

Abstract: Many experts, analysts, and novice investors have found it challenging to predict valuations of shares. Investors are, in fact, quite interested in the field of price forecasting for equity study. Many investors are interested in understanding the future state of the equity market in order to make a smart and profitable investment. By giving helpful information like the equity market's future direction, good and effective equity market prediction systems assist traders, investors, and analysts. equity market price forecasting is a challenging undertaking that often necessitates intensive human-computer interaction. For forecasting share prices, many prediction approaches are available. The foundation of price for shares forecasting and other financial model forecasts is time series forecasting. More sophisticated time series prediction methods are necessary when share prices become less linear. The predictability of current systems is insufficient. In this research, we suggest using the LSTM Deep Learning Algorithm for effective equity price forecasting and analysis technique with diversification analysis. When compared to current equity price prediction systems, this will produce more accurate findings.

Multivariate Index Relationship Exploration Using Advanced Machine Learning Techniques

Abstract: Stock market forecasts have always attracted the attention of many analysts and researchers. Popular theory suggests that stock markets are inherently straightforward, and trying to predict them is a trivial matter. It is a difficult problem in itself. The market behaves like a voting machine in the short term, but in the long term it behaves like a pair of scales. Therefore, there is room to predict market movements over a longer period of time. Applying machine learning techniques and other algorithms to stock price analysis and forecasting is a promising area. This white paper begins with a brief overview of the stock market and a taxonomy of stock market forecasting methods. We then highlight some research findings on resource analysis and forecasting. We discuss technical, fundamental, short- term and long-term approaches to equity analysis. Finally, we present some challenges and research opportunities in this area.

Inequality in child immunization coverage in Ethiopia: evidence from Expanded Program for Immunization coverage survey

Background: Immunization is one of the cost-effective public health interventions, and can be used to prevent life-threatening childhood illnesses. This study aimed to assess disparities in child immunization coverage in Ethiopia.
 Method: Data from the 2012 Ethiopian Expanded Program for Immunization coverage survey was used. In this study, absolute and relative equity analysis was employed based on socioeconomic variables
 Result: Equity analysis was conducted in 3,748 subjects out of 3,762 child caregivers’ data. The concentration index among the poorest and richest group for BCG immunization coverage was 11%, OPV 3 was 13.3%, Pneumococcal 3 was 38.6%, Pentavalent 3 was 21.5%, Measles was 12.9%, Vitamin A supplementation was 8.9%, and full immunization was 38.6%.
 Conclusion: Inequalities were observed in child immunization coverage across the socioeconomic groups, with the better-off wealth status, urban residents, and children from an educated mother being more likely to be vaccinated.

Social equity analysis of public transit accessibility to healthcare might be erroneous when travel time uncertainty impacts are overlooked

Previous studies evaluating the social equity of transit-based accessibility to healthcare have failed to consider travel time uncertainty by assuming that transit always operates exactly as scheduled. Their analyses, therefore, tended to ignore travellers’ efforts to avoid being late to their healthcare appointments. These conventional approaches might overestimate accessibility and lead to inaccurate evaluations of social equity. This study aims to investigate how overlooking travellers’ risk-management efforts under travel time uncertainty might result in flawed assessments of equity in transit-based accessibility to healthcare facilities. Specifically, we compare the traditional accessibility approach to the robust space–time accessibility (RSTA) method, which considers travellers’ risk-management strategies (e.g., leaving early, choosing routes based not only on travel time but also travel time variability) depending on whether they are risk-neutral or risk-averse under travel time uncertainty. The RSTA model provides a more conservative, realistic, and user-centred view of transit-based accessibility. To demonstrate this, we conducted an empirical study of Columbus, Ohio, USA, using real-time transit big data. Our results show that traditional measures of accessibility that do not consider the impact of travel time uncertainty cannot accurately capture the social and racial inequity in healthcare accessibility via transit. However, the RSTA method reveals significant inequity in transit-based healthcare accessibility among residents in terms of their socio-economic and demographic status. Moreover, the conventional accessibility method evaluates the new bus rapid transit (BRT) service as promoting the accessibility of disadvantaged people, which the robust accessibility method revealed is not true.

Equity in maternal healthcare utilisation in Ghana: Do community-based primaryhealth care programmes matter?

Improving equity in the use of maternal health services in rural and remote communities is critical to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals targets on maternal and child health. This study examines the effect of a community-based primary healthcare strengthening programme on improving the utilisation of antenatal care (ANC4+), skilled delivery and health facility delivery. Baseline and endline survey data of women of reproductive age for intervention and comparison districts were used to examine the equity impact of the Ghana Essential Health Interventions Programme (GEHIP) on antenatal care visits, skilled delivery and health facility delivery. The Wagstaff extension of the concentration index and regression models are used to assess equity effects of the programme on the utilisation of these services by wealth index and educational attainment. Coverage rates increased for both intervention and comparison districts, but were generally higher in intervention districts than comparison districts at endline (90% vs. 88% for ANC4+, 88% vs. 84% for skilled delivery and 93% vs. 88% for health facility delivery). Only ANC4+ showed a statistically significant positive treatment effect of the intervention (Dif-in-Dif = 0.071, p-value = 0.010). Equity analysis showed a mixed picture with intervention districts achieving significant equity improvement for skilled delivery for both wealth index and maternal education but only education equity for health facility delivery, while comparison districts achieved both wealth and education equity improvements for two indicators (health facility delivery and skilled delivery). No significant equity/inequity effects were found for ANC4+. Efforts to improve community-based healthcare access have been associated with improved coverage of maternal health services; however, the effect on improving equity in service coverage is mixed. Results indicate a need to extend community-based primary health care development beyond general improvements in access to ensure equity in the coverage of maternal and child health services that such programmes provide.

Equity Analysis of Bikeshare Access: A Case Study of New York City

This study investigates the association between bikeshare program usage and neighborhoods with different socio-demographic information. This study investigated 2023 Citi Bike bikeshare data in New York City. For the analysis, Generalized Linear Regression (GLR) in ArcGIS Pro was used. The results revealed that Citi Bike bikeshare ridership increases in neighborhoods with higher income, more workers, more males, higher density, and lower African American and Hispanic population in New York City.

Equity Analysis of the Green Space Allocation in China’s Eight Urban Agglomerations Based on the Theil Index and GeoDetector

An urban agglomeration is a highly developed spatial area formed by integrated cities. While previous studies have analyzed green space allocation at the provincial and city scales, there is insufficient information on green space allocation in urban agglomerations. For this research, a database of green spaces in eight urban agglomerations (133 cities) in China from 2002 to 2019 was constructed to better understand the equity of green space distribution among land resources. A green space equity index (GEI) was established based on the Theil index and combined with GeoDetector to analyze the differences in urban agglomeration green spaces. The main conclusions are as follows: The sum of the GEI of China’s urban agglomerations has increased significantly, rising from 3.74 in 2002 to 6.34 in 2019. The GEI value for each of the eight urban agglomerations was kept under 0.01. Polarized development has occurred within urban agglomeration cities, and the allocation of green space in megacities is relatively weak, especially in the more economically developed Yangtze River Delta and Guanzhong urban agglomerations. The average temperature, humidity, and precipitation have dominant influences in determining the GEI values. This paper provides a new perspective on the management and allocation of urban agglomeration green spaces.

Artificial Intelligence-enabled Decision Support in Surgery: State-of-the-art and Future Directions.

To summarize state-of-the-art artificial intelligence-enabled decision support in surgery and to quantify deficiencies in scientific rigor and reporting. To positively affect surgical care, decision-support models must exceed current reporting guideline requirements by performing external and real-time validation, enrolling adequate sample sizes, reporting model precision, assessing performance across vulnerable populations, and achieving clinical implementation; the degree to which published models meet these criteria is unknown. Embase, PubMed, and MEDLINE databases were searched from their inception to September 21, 2022 for articles describing artificial intelligence-enabled decision support in surgery that uses preoperative or intraoperative data elements to predict complications within 90 days of surgery. Scientific rigor and reporting criteria were assessed and reported according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines. Sample size ranged from 163-2,882,526, with 8/36 articles (22.2%) featuring sample sizes of less than 2000; 7 of these 8 articles (87.5%) had below-average (<0.83) area under the receiver operating characteristic or accuracy. Overall, 29 articles (80.6%) performed internal validation only, 5 (13.8%) performed external validation, and 2 (5.6%) performed real-time validation. Twenty-three articles (63.9%) reported precision. No articles reported performance across sociodemographic categories. Thirteen articles (36.1%) presented a framework that could be used for clinical implementation; none assessed clinical implementation efficacy. Artificial intelligence-enabled decision support in surgery is limited by reliance on internal validation, small sample sizes that risk overfitting and sacrifice predictive performance, and failure to report confidence intervals, precision, equity analyses, and clinical implementation. Researchers should strive to improve scientific quality.

An Empirical Analysis of Private Equity, Listed Private Equity and Public Equity

It is not a secret that the world of Private Equity is growing year by year, with an immense upwards trend and that the willingness of understanding how Private Equity as an alternative capital raising strategy can be used by companies which do not want to go public and get financed by Public Equity.The underlying paper investigates the world of Private Equity, Listed Private Equity and Public Equity. Regarding transparency of data, the comparability of Public Equity to Listed Private Equity provides way better results than comparing Public Equity to Private Equity.Due to the listing of the firms, the disclosure requirements need to be fulfilled. The GLPE Index illustrates and underlines the effectiveness of Listed Private Equity as a financing source. The GLPE Index contains 40 to 75 listed Private Equity firms which mostly invest Private Equity in firms that are not listed.However - The top ten constituents of this index show their diversification considering the companies they have invested in and their performance, the countries in which the Headquarter are located and the performance of these funds. One can see clearly that 2021 was an extra ordinary year for all of them. They achieved returns and performance better than indices like the MSCI World and S&amp;P 500.

A political ecology analysis of tourism development and water equity in Barbados

This article mobilizes insights from political ecology analysis. Specifically, it focuses on how power asymmetries between stakeholder groups may or may not produce uneven socio-environmental outcomes in the tourism-water nexus in Barbados. Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like Barbados, which obtains an estimated 90% of its water from groundwater aquifers, are particularly vulnerable to changing patterns of precipitation. While the data collected are preliminary, they point towards the production of uneven socio-environmental outcomes based on very prevalent power asymmetries.

An Equity Analysis of Zero-Dose Children in India Using the National Family Health Survey Data: Status, Challenges, and Next Steps.

Background While immunization programs across the world have made considerable progress, children and communities continue to be beyond the reach of healthcare services. Globally, they are now referred to as zero-dose (ZD) children (those who have not received a single dose of diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus-containing vaccine). Pre-COVID-19 pandemic analyses suggest that nearly 50% of vaccine-preventable deaths occur among ZD children. Two-thirds of these children live in extremely poor households suffering from multiple deprivations including lack of access to reproductive health services, water, and sanitation. Hence, ZD childrenhave now been prioritized as a key cohort for identification and integration with the health systems as we build back from the pandemic. Methodology Extracting data from the last two National Family Health Survey (NFHS) rounds (NFHS 4, 2015-2016 and NFHS 5, 2019-2021), this study aims to ascertain the status of ZD children aged 12-23 months in India, the challenges, and the necessary action agenda going forward. Data were analyzed for equity determinants such as gender, place of residence, religion, birth order, caste, and mother's schooling. Key determinants included the change in ZD prevalence at the national, state, and district levels; variations across equity parameters and states with maximum improvements; and disparity across these indicators. A correlation analysis was also conducted to understand the nature of the association between ZD prevalence and critical maternal and child health indicators. Results The overall ZD prevalence between the two rounds was reduced by 4.1% (10.5-6.4%). A total of 26 states in the country reported a ZD prevalence of <10% in NFHS 5 compared to 18 in NFHS 4. In total, 324 districts reported a ZD prevalence of <5%, and 145 districts reported a prevalence of >10%. The equity parameters reflected a slow-footed reduction among ZD for girl children, across urban geographies, firstborn children, mothers with 12 or more years of schooling, and children in families with the highest wealth quintiles. A negative correlation accentuated between the two NFHS rounds was established between first-trimester registration, four or more antenatal visits, institutional deliveries, and ZD prevalence. Conclusions The findings point toward sustained improvement across key equity parameters, however, challenges do exist. Moreover, the impact of the pandemic on immunization programs across the globe and in India is bound to halt and reverse the progress and potentiate further inequities. It is thus imperative that continued and augmented efforts are continued to identify, integrate, and immunize ZD children, families, and communities.

EMBEDDING PRINCIPLES OF DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION WHEN COLLECTING AND ANALYZING DATA

Journal of Policy Analysis and ManagementEarly View Point-Counterpoint EMBEDDING PRINCIPLES OF DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION WHEN COLLECTING AND ANALYZING DATA Nitya Venkateswaran, Nitya VenkateswaranSearch for more papers by this author Nitya Venkateswaran, Nitya VenkateswaranSearch for more papers by this author First published: 22 February 2023 https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.22478Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Early ViewOnline Version of Record before inclusion in an issue RelatedInformation

Institutionalizing barriers to access? An equity scan of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) incentive programs in the United States

ABSTRACT Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) is part of a suite of sustainability initiatives that are vital to tackling climate change. However, siloed governance structures that traditionally implement stormwater infrastructure are not well-suited to address the cross-cutting goals of such initiatives (i.e. incorporating social equity along with technological aspects). Equity planning centers social equity in policy development and can help ameliorate this siloing. Here, we apply equity planning concepts to examine GSI incentive programs developed in the United States to address current funding gaps. We explore GSI incentive programs included in federally-mandated Stormwater Management Plans (SWMPs). Programs found through a scan of readily available SWMPs ranged from $20 rebates to $500,000 grants, providing a range of opportunities. However, closer analysis of application materials suggests potential institutionalization of inequality through restricted access. Barriers to accessing these programs can limit participation by marginalized or under-resourced communities and instead redirect scarce resources to communities who already have strong capacity. Thus, we argue that centering equity in the development of sustainability incentives and conducting meaningful equity analysis should be applied to GSI programs to reform practice and avoid institutionalizing inequity.

Interventions Designed to Increase the Uptake of Lung Cancer Screening: An Equity-Oriented Scoping Review

IntroductionParticipation in lung cancer screening (LCS) is lower in populations with the highest burden of lung cancer risk (through the social patterning of smoking behavior) and lowest levels of health care utilization (through structurally inaccessible care) leading to a widening of health inequities. MethodsWe conducted a scoping review using the Arksey and O’Malley methodological framework to inform equitable access to LCS by illuminating knowledge and implementation gaps in interventions designed to increase the uptake of LCS. We comprehensively searched for LCS interventions (Ovid Medline, Excerpta Medica database, the Cochrane Library, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and Scopus from 2000 to June 22, 2021) and included peer-reviewed articles and gray literature published in the English language that describe an intervention designed to increase the uptake of LCS, charted data using our previously published tool and conduced a health equity analysis to determine the intended-unintended and positive-negative outcomes of the interventions for populations experiencing the greatest inequities. ResultsOur search yielded 3572 peer-reviewed articles and 54,292 pieces of gray literature. Ultimately, we included 35 peer-reviewed articles and one gray literature. The interventions occurred in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, and Italy, focusing on shared decision-making, the use of electronic health records as reminders, patient navigation, community-based campaigns, and mobile computed tomography scanners. We developed an equity-oriented LCS framework and mapped the dimensions and outcomes of the interventions on access to LCS on the basis of approachability, acceptability, availability, affordability, and appropriateness of the intervention. No intervention was mapped across all five dimensions. Most notably, knowledge and implementation gaps were identified in dimensions of acceptability, availability, and affordability. ConclusionsInterventions that were most effective in improving access to LCS targeted priority populations, raised community-level awareness, tailored materials for sociocultural acceptability, did not depend on prior patient engagement/registration with the health care system, proactively considered costs related to participation, and enhanced utilization through informed decision-making.

Higher research productivity = more pay? Gender pay-for-productivity inequity across disciplines

Gender pay equity for academics continues to be elusive. Adding to scholarship around structural barriers to gender equity in academic settings, we investigate the link between scholarly performance and compensation. We expect high research productivity to be differentially associated with compensation outcomes for men and women. Building on social role theory, we hypothesize that these relationships are contingent upon whether researchers are inside or outside of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Using the h-index, compensation, and researcher demographics for 3033 STEM and social and behavioral sciences (SBS) researchers from 17 R1 universities, we applied multilevel modeling techniques and showed that cumulative research productivity was more strongly related to compensation for men versus women researchers. However, these effects only held in STEM disciplines but not in SBS disciplines. Based on these results, we recommend that institutions consider changing how pay analyses are conducted and advocate for adding explicit modeling of scientific performance-compensation links as part of routine pay equity analyses.

Introducing spatial availability, a singly-constrained measure of competitive accessibility.

Accessibility indicators are widely used in transportation, urban and healthcare planning, among many other applications. These measures are weighted sums of reachable opportunities from a given origin, conditional on the cost of movement, and are estimates of the potential for spatial interaction. Over time, various proposals have been forwarded to improve their interpretability: one of those methodological additions have been the introduction of competition. In this paper we focus on competition, but first demonstrate how a widely used measure of accessibility with congestion fails to properly match the opportunity-seeking population. We then propose an alternative formulation of accessibility with competition, a measure we call spatial availability. This measure relies on proportional allocation balancing factors (friction of distance and population competition) that are equivalent to imposing a single constraint on conventional gravity-based accessibility. In other words, the proportional allocation of opportunities results in a spatially available opportunities value which is assigned to each origin that, when all origin values are summed, equals the total number of opportunities in the region. We also demonstrate how Two-Stage Floating Catchment Area (2SFCA) methods are equivalent to spatial availability and can be reconceptualized as singly-constrained accessibility. To illustrate the application of spatial availability and compare it to other relevant measures, we use data from the 2016 Transportation Tomorrow Survey of the Greater Golden Horseshoe area in southern Ontario, Canada. Spatial availability is an important contribution since it clarifies the interpretation of accessibility with competition and paves the way for future applications in equity analysis (e.g., spatial mismatch, opportunity benchmarking, policy intervention scenario analysis).