The previous section presented the relationship between the social determinants of health and inequity in health (84) and highlighted the rising inequity in health in both high-income and low- and middle-income countries in the European Region (9,92). The global economic downturn gives greater urgency to identifying options for action: what can be done and what works.
Leveraging the health system
Health systems are a vital determinant of health, and unequal distribution of care is a social determinant of health (6). Health systems are responsible for ensuring that their policies and interventions do not unintentionally increase socioeconomic and health inequity. In addition, they can directly address the effects of socially determined inequity in health through health services and act on the social determinants of health outside the health sector (6,217).
The scope for health-sector action goes beyond health care services to other health system functions, especially stewardship.
Three types of action by health systems can help to reduce inequity in health:
• putting its own house in order by addressing the types of inequity in health services that contribute to inequity in health status;
• preventing or addressing the harm to health caused by living in disadvantaged circumstances; and
• tackling poverty and other wider social determinants of health more directly, including advocacy with other sectors for change, through stewardship (218).
Action to put the health system’s house in order ranges from providing services that counteract the principle that the availability of high-quality health care tends to vary inversely with the need of the population group served (inverse care law), to matching resource allocation to increased need, maintaining a set of comprehensive universal services and/or preventing health systems from contributing to poverty.
An example is Poland’s strengthening its national health insurance system through legislative and regulatory mechanisms to improve the access of vulnerable groups to universal health care services. Five legislative and/or regulatory solutions were introduced to ensure that people with low incomes have better access to health care, ranging from free access to publicly financed health services for uninsured people to protecting the access of insured people to dental care. The changes emerged from monitoring the introduction of the new universal health insurance system: all information on unintentional exclusion was analysed to identify new or excluded social groups so that they could be included in the legislation to ensure equity of access to health services. Post-implementation monitoring identified a lower-than-expected number of intended beneficiaries and lower total expenditure. Further analysis, however, identified that the uptake was greatest in the administrative divisions that included major or capital cities (such as Warsaw) because more population groups who are likely to be uninsured and have low incomes (such as homeless people) live in major cities, and/or that had promoted the new rights where uninsured low-income people live (219).
Another example is the resource allocation formula that the Department of Health in England uses to allocate funding to primary care trusts. The funding formula is weighted to allow for extra health needs that primary care trusts need to meet by working in disadvantaged areas (220,221).
Action to prevent or address the harm to health caused by living in disadvantaged circumstances takes the form of providing extra support services to cater for increased need. These include boosting sensitive or selective disease prevention and health promotion services and intersectoral or multisectoral work to address the harmful effects of living in disadvantaged circumstances. Box 2.5 provides two examples (222–224).
Prison health reform in England and Wales
Prisoners often come from the poor, deprived and marginalized groups in any society, which are particularly vulnerable to communicable diseases such as HIV, other sexually transmitted infections and TB. The Department of Health is responsible for the health of prisoners but has an equal partnership with H.M. Prison Service, which aims to provide improved health services for prisoners. As part of the North West Health Service (England) initiative, Target: Wellbeing, additional funding has been provided to promote healthy eating, exercise and positive mental health among inmates in 17 prisons. The longer-term goal is to enhance the employment opportunities for prisoners through specific health promotion resources and to improve the health literacy of prisoners’ families. This initiative involves many partners and stakeholders from other agencies, including nongovernmental organizations (222,223).
Romania: a community approach to TB
TB is a resurging and growing public health threat in Romania, and disproportionately affects the Roma population. Poverty and marginalization of the Roma has led to higher TB mortality, treatment default and failure rates. Using a knowledge, attitudes and practices survey and other data, the Ministry of Health and HealthRight International developed a community-based information, education and communication campaign to expand knowledge about TB in vulnerable groups and Roma in selected counties, to reduce the stigma of and negative attitudes towards TB within these groups and to increase the detection of cases and adherence to treatment for TB (224). Evaluation revealed that the exposed respondents were better informed than the unexposed respondents about treatment for and the transmission of TB. At the end of the project, the Ministry of Health hired some peer health educators as Roma health mediators. At the level of policy-making and stewardship, the project provided important feedback and input for adapting the National Tuberculosis Control Programme.
Box 2.5. Addressing the harmful effects of living in disadvantaged circumstances
Addressing poverty and the wider determinants of health directly includes health system actions such as working intersectorally and making health impact assessments of national and/or subnational policies within and outside the health sector. For example, equity-focused health impact assessment of regional development plans can identify their potential effects on equity in health and recommend how they can be strengthened to maximize and distribute potential health gains more equitably. It also includes the health system in its role as a major employer at the national and subnational levels. Box 2.6 provides an example from Norway (225,226).
Norway’s national strategy to reduce social inequalities in health (225) – along with the reports to the Storting on employment, welfare and inclusion and on early intervention for lifelong learning – form part of the Government’s comprehensive policy for reducing social inequity, promoting inclusion and combating poverty. This is one of the first national policies explicitly to tackle the social gradient in health.
The national strategy sets out guidelines for the efforts of the Government and ministries to reduce social inequality in health during the next decade. Its primary objective is to reduce social inequality in health by levelling up. The strategy responds to health intelligence demonstrating that social inequality in health affects all population groups in Norway (226). The four priority areas include:
• reducing social inequality that contributes to inequality in health by such means as creating safe childhood conditions and inclusive working life and healthy working environments;
• reducing inequality in health in health-related behaviour and use of the health services by such means as reducing the second upper limit for user charges and working intersectorally to develop systematic programmes for physical activity, dietary guidance and smoking cessation;
• using targeted initiatives to promote social inclusion by such means as creating better living conditions for the most disadvantaged people; and
• developing knowledge and intersectoral tools to help increase knowledge about causes and effective measures.
Box 2.6. Norway: working intersectorally to tackle the social gradient
Another example of the health system acting with others to directly tackle wider social determinants of health is the use of cash benefit programmes. These are incentive-based approaches for individuals, with cash benefits provided on the fulfilment of particular conditions, such as children receiving health services and attending school, expectant mothers receiving antenatal care and unemployed young people accepting job counselling and support (227).
A recent review of the global evidence on social exclusion found that: “… conditional transfer programmes are associated with a range of positive outcomes in the short to medium term including modest but important health status outcomes” (227). Nevertheless, it noted that such programmes pose challenges in low-income settings. The changes recommended to maximize potential health and equity benefits included using conditionality solely when it is necessary to achieve the intended outcome and providing higher levels of cash transfers and/or quality of services (227). The recent additions to the cash transfer programme in Kyrgyzstan (Box 2.7) (228) provide an example of how this type of programme can be tailored for greater equity in health. Cash transfer programmes are increasingly part of poverty reduction strategies and initiatives to reduce social exclusion.
In 2008, the World Bank approved an additional US$ 10 million as part of the cash transfer programme in Kyrgyzstan in response to soaring food prices, such as the tripling of bread prices, which meant that some families might not be able to buy enough food for their children (228).
The 450 000 people who were already receiving the cash transfer would receive an additional 10%. This included a strategy to reduce the exclusionary error: the people who were eligible to receive the transfer but did not. To address this, social workers are interviewing families to raise awareness of the initiative and ensure that everyone who is eligible receives the cash transfer to purchase food.
Box 2.7. Additions to the cash transfer programme in Kyrgyzstan
Linking to health system functions
All three categories outlined above include action across one or more of the functions of health systems (190). Table 2.24 uses examples of health system action to highlight how these functions are important for reducing inequity in health. The four features of health systems that are critical in promoting equity (217,218) are:
• leveraging of intersectoral action across government departments to promote population health;
• organizational arrangements and practices that involve population groups and civil-society organizations;
• progressive universalism: health care funding and provision arrangements that aim at universal coverage with particular benefits for socially disadvantaged and marginalized groups; and
• revitalization of the comprehensive primary health care approach.
These features therefore comprise an important foundation for developing and assessing health systems’ action on health inequities.
Changing the design and delivery of public health programmes
Increasing and emerging evidence indicates how to design and deliver public health programmes (for communicable and noncommunicable conditions) for improved health equity as well as improved coverage. The Priority Public Health Conditions Knowledge Network (231) looked at 14 noncommunicable and communicable conditions and related
Table 2.24. Cross-cutting the functions of the health system with three types of action to address socially determined inequity in health
Function Health system action: example
Health system putting its own house in order:
Inequalities Sensitive Practice Initiative, National Health Service, Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and addressing discrimination, Scotland, United Kingdom (229)
Health services preventing or ameliorating the harm to health caused by living in disadvan-taged circumstances: Liverpool Healthy Homes initiative, England, United Kingdom (230)
Health services preventing or ameliorating the harm to health caused by living in disadvantaged circumstances: a community approach to controlling TB among the Roma in Romania (224) Service delivery Gender-sensitive smoking cessation in maternity services to
build capacity to support pregnant women to quit smoking Housebound service to enable delivery of
primary care to hard-to-reach group
Health needs assessment and referrals to relevant health services, including health trainers, health visitors and lifestyle advisers where appropriate
Facilitation of Roma’s access to and use of existing diagnosis and treatment services by providing training to specialized TB health service providers (doctors and nurses) and local doctors More client-oriented approach resulting in better use of health services Financing Funding available to support participation by
disabled people in developing new services Resource allocation plan for community health and care partnerships for children’s and older people’s services using deprivation as an indicator
Health service financing and resource allocation structures for local health authorities enable the pooling of funds for a partnership and intersectoral initiative between the health sector and others, such as the local council
Services funded through National Tuberculosis Control Programme Additional funding from nongovernmental organizations (United States Agency for International Development and the Open Society Institute) for the targeted health education components of the project and recruitment of peer health educators and community nurses The Ministry of Health now also responsible for financing and management of the targeted/selective health education components of the project Resource generation Direct access hubs planned to increase access of people in
disadvantaged areas to health and social care services Training of practitioners and National Health Service staff to raise awareness of inequality and how it affects health and well-being
Partnership initiative involving the local primary care trust: 27 staff from the participating National Health Service and local government services over three years, at a total cost of £4 million, in addition to capital investment of £4.7 million
Peer health educators selected from the Roma community and trained to communicate a health message on TB
Over half the educators hired by the Ministry of Health when the project ended to continue working with the Roma community, medical staff and public health authorities
Stewardship Improved health intelligence: increasing collection and disaggregation of patient information by sex, race, disability and sexual orientation
Improvements to the worst private rented homes – such as removing serious health hazards identified by environmental health inspection – to control their most significant and life-threatening hazards, especially to vulnerable people
Health intelligence and oversight improved by a baseline survey to identify knowledge, attitudes and practices about TB among Roma in three counties Policy guidance enhanced by using survey to inform training of peer health educators and development of appropriate information, education and communication materials for Roma about TB; and by using results of project to revise National Tuberculosis Control Programme
Baseline survey used to evaluate the impact and outcomes of the project
Coalitions between the Ministry of Health and nongovernmental organizations strengthened
issues, including violence and injury, TB, malaria, neglected tropical diseases, alcohol-related disorders, children’s health, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, food safety, HIV, maternal health, mental health, nutrition, oral health, sexual and reproductive health and tobacco and health. The Network’s final report is not yet publicly available, but preliminary results have been made available within WHO and demonstrate how programmes can be made more effective and equitable.
According to Blas et al., “… ample opportunities exist to adjust the design and coordinated implementation of these initiatives to enhance health equity when a social determinants of health approach is adopted” (232). This can be accomplished by identifying barriers to and facilitators of access to public health programmes, including analysing the social determinants of health that affect the accessibility, acceptability and appropriateness of programmes (233) and thus reduce effective coverage or increase inequity in health (231). A recent study (234) found that successfully implementing current best practice interventions on four classical risk
factors to reduce coronary heart disease in groups with both high and low socioeconomic status could reduce most of the inequity in mortality from this cause.
Using this approach, public health programmes may take action individually or collectively to achieve more equitable health outcomes, especially when different health conditions, such as TB, HIV infection and poor nutrition, have common social determinants. Achieving greater equity in health might therefore not only involve new sets of interventions but also probably require modifying the organization and operation of public health programmes, including involving sectors other than health as the norm rather than the exception (Box 2.8) (231).
TB remains an increasing public health threat in Tajikistan. The country is one of the 18 high-priority countries for implementing the updated Stop TB Strategy (144). A social gradient for TB exists in all countries: the risk of TB is much higher among people with low socioeconomic status.
A global WHO network, as part of the Priority Public Health Conditions Knowledge Network of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health, examined the role of TB risk factors and the social determinants of health, especially how to combine the current approaches, such as the Stop TB Strategy, with preventive action, including reducing people’s vulnerability to developing TB by addressing such determinants as migration.
Given the high level of labour migration and TB incidence in Tajikistan, the Ministry of Health is conducting a knowledge, attitudes and practices survey on TB among migrant labourers to better understand how this affects the treatment of TB and to improve programme coverage and outcomes. WHO and the International Organization for Migration are supporting the Ministry of Health in improving health intelligence on labour migration as a social determinant of health and its effects on TB (235).
Box 2.8. Incorporating a focus on social determinants of health into a national programme to stop TB
Developing a systematic approach to measuring and evaluating action by health systems
This section has given a brief overview of the types of action health systems are taking across the European Region to reduce socially determined inequity in health. This action reflects countries’ increased acceptance of the need to develop and implement policy-level responses in health systems to reduce inequity, as reflected in the Tallinn Charter (36). This has accompanied a demand for greater specificity in health intelligence about how such action affects inequity in terms of: measuring the relative, absolute and/or scale or magnitude of inequity, making relevant data available and identifying which actions or policies are most effective. Countries including Lithuania, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia and the United Kingdom have invested significantly in improving the assessment of policies to reduce socially determined inequity in health.
These challenges suggest that information about health systems’ actions to address inequity in health needs to be collected more systematically, to provide better support to policy-makers and policy development in this area, especially regarding the transferability of action across countries in the Region. This is consistent with the recommendations of other major initiatives in this field, such as the Eurothine project on socially determined inequity in health, which recommended establishing a databank and a European clearinghouse for initiatives on equity (92).
Finally, all the actions outlined require changing the approach to designing, delivering and evaluating health services. In turn, this has implications for human resources and requires changing methods of education and training for all who work in the health system, so that they are more aware not only of the effects of social determinants on health outcomes but also of how to respond appropriately and not worsen existing inequity in health.