OBJECTIVES: Health equity can be achieved when all people reach their potential for health and well-being. Unfair, and avoidable, differences in health occur when segments of the population have less power and resources than others. Improving health and well-being for all people can grow economies, reduce burden on health care systems, and minimize the spread of some infectious diseases. As a social problem, health equity can be minimized/eliminated by changes in behavior, and as health economists, through how we design and conduct research. In this review we address the question: How can health economists contribute to health equity in their work?

METHODS: A literature review was conducted in PubMed (July 6^th 2023), to collect guidance/methods on how health economists can consider health equity in research. We searched Title/Abstract for ((health equity) AND (health economics OR economic evaluation)). The search was not constrained by date. Only English articles were included.

RESULTS: 53 articles were identified in the search and after screening 12 articles were included. Actionable guidance/methods were grouped into 5 areas: (1) Inclusive Evidence - ensuring inclusion of marginalized populations in evidence, (2) Distributional (Cost-Effectiveness) Analysis - examining intervention effect by equity dimensions, sub-groups categorized by equity dimensions (household income, gender, sex, geography, socio-economic status, index of multiple deprivation), (3) Extended and Enhanced Cost-Effectiveness Analysis - extended cost effectiveness analysis including financial aspects of inequality and justice-enhanced cost-effectiveness analysis, (4) Weighting Opportunity Costs and Outcomes - weighting by equity dimensions and measuring public aversion to healthy inequality, (5) Health Equity Impact - measuring changes in equity due to an intervention (relative index of inequality, health (in)equity plane). Results are discussed within a practical implementation framework.

CONCLUSIONS: There are several ways to consider equity in health economic research. By incorporating these into research we can contribute to improving health for all people.