Monitoring Health Inequalities in 12 European Countries : Lessons Learned from the Joint Action Health Equity Europe
Högberg, Pi (Unit for Public Health Reporting and Evaluation. Public Health Agency of Sweden)
Henriksson, Goran (Region Västra Götaland. Regionens Hus)
Borrell i Thió, Carme (Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau)
Ciutan, Marius (Centre for Health Services Research and Evaluation. National School of Public Health Management and Professional Development)
Costa, Giuseppe (Epidemiology Unit ASL TO3. Region Piedmont)
Georgiou, Irene (Administration Unit. Ministry of Health)
Halik, Rafal (Department of Population Health Monitoring and Analysis. National Institute of Public Health NIH-National Research Institute)
Hoebel, Jens (Division of Social Determinants of Health. Robert Koch Institute)
Kilpeläinen, Katri (Health and Welfare Promotion Unit. Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare)
Kyprianou, Theopisti (Health Monitoring Unit. Ministry of Health)
Lesnik, Tina (Analysis and Development of Health. National Institute of Public Health)
Petrauskaite, Indre (Institute of Hygiene)
Ruijsbroek, Annemarie (Centre for Nutrition. Prevention and Health Services. National Institute for Public Health and the Environment)
Scintee, Silvia Gabriela (Centre for Health Services Research and Evaluation. National School of Public Health Management and Professional Development)
Vasic, Milena (Faculty of Dentistry Pancevo)
Olsson, Gabriella (Unit for Public Health Reporting and Evaluation. Public Health Agency of Sweden)

Date:	2022
Abstract:	To raise awareness about health inequalities, a well-functioning health inequality monitoring system (HIMS) is crucial. Drawing on work conducted under the Joint Action Health Equity Europe, the aim of this paper is to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses in current health inequality monitoring based on lessons learned from 12 European countries and to discuss what can be done to strengthen their capacities. Fifty-five statements were used to collect information about the status of the capacities at different steps of the monitoring process. The results indicate that the preconditions for monitoring vary greatly between countries. The availability and quality of data are generally regarded as strong, as is the ability to disaggregate data by age and gender. Regarded as poorer is the ability to disaggregate data by socioeconomic factors, such as education and income, or by other measures of social position, such as ethnicity. Few countries have a proper health inequality monitoring strategy in place and, where in place, it is often regarded as poorly up to date with policymakers' needs. These findings suggest that non-data-related issues might be overlooked aspects of health inequality monitoring. Structures for stakeholder involvement and communication that attracts attention from policymakers are examples of aspects that deserve more effort.
Grants:	European Commission 801600
Note:	Altres ajuts:Public Health Agency of Sweden.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Health inequalities ; Monitoring ; Health information systems ; Policy
Published in:	International journal of environmental research and public health, Vol. 19 Núm. 13 (July 2022) , p. 7663, ISSN 1660-4601

DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19137663
PMID: 35805322

13 p, 1.4 MB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Health sciences and biosciences > Institut de Recerca Sant Pau
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles