From PAHO/Equidad listserve.
--------------------------------------------
Health inequalities: concepts, frameworks and policy - Briefing paper

 Hilary Graham, Professor of Social Policy, Institute for Health Research,
Lancaster University

Michael P Kelly, Director of Evidence and Guidance, Health Development
Agency, London, UK  2004

 Available online at:
http://www.hda.nhs.uk/Documents/health_inequalities_concepts.pdf

At the heart of public health in contemporary Britain is a paradox. Britain
is now collectively healthier than it has ever been in its history. Life
expectancy improves and some of the great killer diseases are in retreat as
the benefits of both a preventive approach to public health and advances in
treatment bear fruit. Yet at the same time, the problem of health
inequalities remains stubbornly ubiquitous. While the health of the
population as a whole may be improving, the health of the least and less
well off either improves more slowly than the rest of the population or in
some cases gets worse in absolute terms. This is a challenge to policy
makers and practitioners. It suggests that while some of our policy and
interventions undoubtedly work they also manifestly fail some sections of
the population. To sharpen the tools for policy making in this arena, this
paper reviews some of the important conceptual problems associated with
discussions of health inequalities.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight some of the conceptual issues
relating to socioeconomic inequalities in health. The first section
discusses how people have been classified in the UK, and how, using the
traditional measure of socioeconomic position, the challenge of health
inequalities is being addressed. The second section focuses on
determinants, a core term in the drive to reduce health inequalities, and
discusses the difference between determinants of health and determinants of
inequalities in health. The distinction between the idea of health
disadvantage, health gaps and health gradients is explored in the third
section. The paper therefore makes explicit some of the key terms used in
the debates about health inequalities to help inform the process of policy
development.

-------------------
Problems/Questions? Send it to Listserv owner: [log in to unmask]


To unsubscribe, send the following message in the text section -- NOT the subject header --  to [log in to unmask]
SIGNOFF SDOH

DO NOT SEND IT BY HITTING THE REPLY BUTTON. THIS SENDS THE MESSAGE TO THE ENTIRE LISTSERV AND STILL DOES NOT REMOVE YOU.

To subscribe to the SDOH list, send the following message to [log in to unmask] in the text section, NOT in the subject header.
SUBSCRIBE SDOH yourfirstname yourlastname

To post a message to all 1000+ subscribers, send it to [log in to unmask]
Include in the Subject, its content, and location and date, if relevant.

For a list of SDOH members, send a request to [log in to unmask]

To receive messages only once a day, send the following message to [log in to unmask]
SET SDOH DIGEST

To view the SDOH archives, go to: https://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/sdoh.html