Greetings and well-wishes for a happy & healthy new year.

Today's issue of the British Medical Journal contains an interesting and
provocative editorial on changing the ways that governments look at
'effectiveness evidence' of strategies to change socio-economic inequalities
in health.  I have copied in the citation, link to the full text, and
excerpts from the editorial, into this message below my signature

It would be good to promote and disseminate Canadian research on 'evidence
of effectiveness' and set some new markers for measures of effective
practice.  Any suggestions?

Alison

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Alison Stirling, health promotion consultant
Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse (OPC)
Suite 1900, 180 Dundas St. W. Toronto, ON M5G 1Z8
Tel. 416-408-2249  Email: [log in to unmask]
Internet: http://www.opc.on.ca
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Evidence based policy making
     Sally Macintyre
     BMJ 2003;326 5-6
     http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/326/7379/5?etoc

Evidence based policy making
Impact on health inequalities still needs to be assessed

... "Several governments have recently proposed strategies to reduce
socioeconomic inequalities in health.  An issue rendering strategy
development in this field difficult is that, although a lot of information
is available about the magnitude and causes of socioeconomic inequalities in
health, rather less information is available about the effectiveness of
policies in reducing them."
"..anyone wanting to reduce inequalities in health is faced with a lack of
information about what actions would be most successful."

... "If governments are serious about wanting to reduce inequalities in
health they should not necessarily wait until we have better evidence about
the relative effectiveness of different strategies. They should encourage
the systematic collation and dissemination of the best international
evidence of effectiveness, as has been done in Sweden and the Netherlands,
and is being done in the United Kingdom through the Health Development
Agency's "Evidence into Practice" programme. They should encourage research
studies and routine statistics to be designed so that differential effects
on, or trends among, different socioeconomic groups can be detected. Most
importantly, they should design and implement social and public health
initiatives in ways which facilitate good quality evaluations of
effectiveness and monitoring of impact on health inequalities."

Sally Macintyre, Director.
Medical Research Council Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, Glasgow G12
8RZ ([log in to unmask])

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