PHA-Exchange> A typology of actions to tackle social inequalities in health

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 from "Ruggiero, Mrs. Ana Lucia (WDC)" <ruglucia at PAHO.ORG> -----

<EQUIDAD at LISTSERV.PAHO.ORG>

A typology of actions to tackle social inequalities in health


Professor Margaret Whitehead, Division of Public Health, University of
Liverpool

J. Epidemiol. Community Health - June 2007; Volume 61, Number 6;473-478

 

Website: http://jech.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/61/6/473?etoc
<http://jech.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/61/6/473?etoc>  

 

As Mark Twain cautioned: ''If your only tool is a hammer, all your
problems will be nails''.

 

".....There is a growing acknowledgement that many countries face
serious social inequalities in health, identified as one of the greatest
challenges to public health today. ''Social inequalities in health'' in
this article are defined as systematic differences in health between
different socioeconomic groups within a society. As they are socially
produced, they are potentially avoidable and are widely considered
unacceptable in a civilized society.

 

This paper uses the British convention of referring to ''inequalities in
health'', which commonly has the same meaning in the UK as the term
''inequities in health''. That is, ''inequalities'' in the British
context-and increasingly also across Europe-carries the same
connotations of unfairness and injustice as the term ''inequities''.

 

Previous articles in this series have dealt with how to measure health
inequalities and socioeconomic position, together with the associated
concepts. The central question remains: what can be done about these
social inequalities in health? A growing number of countries are
wrestling with this question and devising policies and interventions in
attempts to tackle the challenge.

 

This article organises some of the most prominent types of actions that
have been devised in this field into a typology. The aim is to help
broaden the understanding of the range of different interventions
available and their potential effectiveness for the task in hand, and to
avoid the tendency to focus on one type of intervention neglecting the
others. ....."



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