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"If you live longer than I do, or if you suffer of less sickness and disability, our health status is unequal. There is inequality between us, but not necessarily inequity. The difference may not result from our living conditions, which may be essentially the same, but from accidents, genetics, or lifestyle choices.

If however the differences in our health status result from different living conditions, mine being less satisfactory than yours, a question of inequity arises. I may have less access to nutritious foods, difficulty in finding decent housing or high quality health care sensitive to my particular needs. My income may be lower and my work stressful and demoralizing, punctuated by frequent periods of prolonged unemployment. In this case, inequalities in health status are the result of inequities in life " (Maltrud,Polacsek,Wallerstein.,1997,p.1)..