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National Level Policies

The National Level Policies section of the portal provides an overview of
the actual situation concerning actions to tackle health inequalities in the
different European countries.

This part of the portal is currently being developed, the information for the remaining countries will continuously be completed.

In addition to the national level portraits of the individual countries the
overview analysis has been conducted and its initial results have been
published in EuroHealth magazine (EuroHealth, 11:2 p.24).

Download the final 'Closing the Gap' publication: Taking Action on Health Equity.

This publication contains summaries of what each of the 21 ´Closing the Gap´ partners are doing to address health inequalities in their countries, as well as the conclusions and recommendations of this 3-year initiative.

Results of the same country

List all good practice projects of the actual country.

You are here: > National Level Policies > Overview > Conclusions and Recommendations

Conclusions and Recommendations

This report presented a summary of what EU Member States are doing to tackle health inequalities. It highlights the fact that there is increasing commitment and initiatives addressing health inequalities and that the policies and initiatives in place differ. The variety of approaches adopted by different countries demonstrates the potential for useful exchange of information on the development of health inequalities policies.

Based on the information we gathered regarding different approaches addressing health inequalities, we suggest that a national health inequalities strategy should include the following elements:

A clear assessment of the problem of health inequalities and systematic data collection enabling to document their extent and nature as well as enabling to systematically monitor progress of health inequalities related policies.

Clear, feasible and specific objectives (long term and short term goals; possibly targets) on what policies aim to achieve and how they aim to do so.

Think about the gradient; adopting both a population approach and focusing on disadvantaged people.
A cross- governmental structure, ensuring the involvement of other policy sectors and that a cross-sectoral approach is undertaken to address health inequalities.

A mix of measures and interventions relevant to the specific country context and addressing the wider determinants of health. This can be achieved by:

• Disentangling the possible actions to address health inequalities in different policy sectors;
• Prioritising the actions with: Most health gain; And/or most urgent; And/or most relevant to you context or circumstances.
• Include upstream measures (inequities in wider determinants) and downstream action (reduce negative impact of unhealthy circumstances).
• Implementing the mix of measure by ensuring they are coordinated by a cross-governmental structure, monitored and evaluated.

Systematic progress monitoring (with reference to the data collected) and evaluation of health inequalities related interventions and policies. These should enable to systematically analyse whether policies and interventions do actually reach and improve the situation of worse - off sections of the population relatively better than the higher socio-economic groups. The outcome of evaluation should further be translated into policy reorientation/definition where needed.

Regional support (both technical and financial) from the national government for the development and implementation of health inequalities policies and interventions at the regional and local level.

Easy, accessible information facilitating transfer of good practices and available evidence at international (European) level to local level practitioners.

Integrate information on health inequalities in the course programs of health related students.

back to Overview
previous page: Barriers to making Health Inequalities more of an important Issue << Conclusions and Recommendations