Describing socioeconomic inequalities in health in European countries: an overview of recent studies.

Full Abstract

Many studies have documented, for all European populations for which data are available, that people from lower socioeconomic groups have shorter lives and more often suffer from health problems. The reduction of socioeconomic inequalities in health is an important challenge for health policies. Descriptive research is important to inform these policies, together with explanatory and interventions research. The specific challenges of descriptive research are (a) to document health inequalities for populations, places, and periods not yet covered by previous studies, (b) to move from generic health measures to disease-specific health outcomes, (c) to document inequalities in specific risk factors such as smoking, and (d) to apply improved measures of socioeconomic position. For each area, this paper gives a brief overview of recent progress made in descriptive studies at European level. The illustrations in this paper showed how existing data sources could be used to describe socioeconomic inequalities in health, and how new insights can be obtained by applying innovative methods. Further descriptive work should aim to identify priority areas for explanatory and intervention studies.

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Author information

Author/s: Kunst, A E (AE);

Affiliation: Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, University Medical Centre Rotterdam, P.O. Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands. a.kunst(-atsign-)erasmusmc.nl

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Review

Journal: Revue d'épidémiologie et de santé publique (Rev Epidemiol Sante Publique), published in France. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Feb; vol 55 (issue 1) : pp 3-11

Dates: Created 2007/04/02; Completed 2007/06/19;

PMID: 17321711, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Europe - epidemiology
Health Policy
Health Services Research
Humans
Life Expectancy

Life Expectancy
Risk Factors
Smoking - epidemiology
Social Class
Sociology, Medical

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