Monitoring Health Inequalities in 12 European Countries: Lessons Learned from the Joint Action Health Equity Europe

Pi Högberg, Göran Henriksson, Carme Borrell, Marius Ciutan, Giuseppe Costa, Irene Georgiou, Rafal Halik, Jens Hoebel, Katri Kilpeläinen, Theopisti Kyprianou, Tina Lesnik, Indre Petrauskaite, Annemarie Ruijsbroek, Silvia Gabriela Scintee, Milena Vasic and Gabriella Olsson
Additional contact information
Pi Högberg: Unit for Public Health Reporting and Evaluation, Public Health Agency of Sweden, 17182 Solna, Sweden
Göran Henriksson: Region Västra Götaland, Regionens Hus, 40544 Göteborg, Sweden
Carme Borrell: Public Health Agency of Barcelona, Place Lesseps 1, 08023 Barcelona, Spain
Marius Ciutan: Centre for Health Services Research and Evaluation, National School of Public Health Management and Professional Development, Vaselor Str. 31, 021253 Bucharest, Romania
Giuseppe Costa: Epidemiology Unit ASL TO3, Region Piedmont, Via Sabaudia 164, 10095 Grugliasco, Italy
Irene Georgiou: Administration Unit, Ministry of Health, 2 Prodromou & Chilonos Str. 17, Nicosia 1448, Cyprus
Rafal Halik: Department of Population Health Monitoring and Analysis, National Institute of Public Health NIH—National Research Institute, Chocimska 24, 00-791 Warsaw, Poland
Jens Hoebel: Division of Social Determinants of Health, Robert Koch Institute, General-Pape-Str. 62-66, 12101 Berlin, Germany
Katri Kilpeläinen: Health and Welfare Promotion Unit, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Mannerheimintie 166, 00270 Helsinki, Finland
Theopisti Kyprianou: Health Monitoring Unit, Ministry of Health, 2 Prodromou & Chilonos Str. 17, Nicosia 1448, Cyprus
Tina Lesnik: Analysis and Development of Health, National Institute of Public Health, Trubarjeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Indre Petrauskaite: Institute of Hygiene, Didžioji Str. 22, LT-01128 Vilnius, Lithuania
Annemarie Ruijsbroek: Centre for Nutrition, Prevention and Health Services, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, P.O. Box 1, 3720 BA Bilthoven, The Netherlands
Silvia Gabriela Scintee: Centre for Health Services Research and Evaluation, National School of Public Health Management and Professional Development, Vaselor Str. 31, 021253 Bucharest, Romania
Milena Vasic: Institute of Public Health of Serbia, Dr Subotica 5, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Gabriella Olsson: Unit for Public Health Reporting and Evaluation, Public Health Agency of Sweden, 17182 Solna, Sweden

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 13, 1-13

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.

Keywords: health inequalities; monitoring; health information systems; policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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