Foregoing a more efficient targeted program may be necessary to avoid reinforcing unjust social attitudes, even if doing so produces less overall health improvement and fails to narrow health inequalities.

Concerns about stigmatization in public health can emerge in a range of public health policies, including when some groups are identified as “at increased risk” for diseases that have socially contentious associations and are themselves stigmatizing. For example, although itself unfair, in some contexts, people with mental illness and AIDs continue to be shunned and worse. Being labeled as at increased risk for these illnesses carries with it the potential for stigmatizing effects. Questions abo