Social and health policies or interventions to tackle health inequalities in European cities: a scoping review

Pons i Vigués, Mariona; Díez, Elia; Morrison Esteve, Joana, 1977-; Salas Nicás, Sergio; Hoffmann, Rasmus; Burström, Bo; Dijk, Jitse P van; Borrell i Thió, Carme

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-198

Social and health policies or interventions to tackle health inequalities in European cities: a scoping review

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Pons-Vigués M, Diez È, Morrison J, Salas-Nicás S, Hoffmann R, Burstrom B, van Dijk JP, Borrell C. Social and health policies or interventions to tackle health inequalities in European cities: a scoping review. BMC Public Health. 2014; 14: 198. DOI 10.1186/1471-2458-14-198

Abstract

Background: Health inequalities can be tackled with appropriate health and social policies, involving all community groups and governments, from local to global. The objective of this study was to carry out a scoping review on social and health policies or interventions to tackle health inequalities in European cities published in scientific journals. Methods: Scoping review. The search was done in “PubMed” and the “Sociological Abstracts” database and was limited to articles published between 1995 and 2011. The inclusion criteria were: interventions had to take place in European cities and they had to state the reduction of health inequalities among their objectives. Results: A total of 54 papers were included, of which 35.2% used an experimental design, and 74.1% were carried out in the United Kingdom. The whole city was the setting in 27.8% of them and 44.4% were based on promoting healthy behaviours. Adults and children were the most frequent target population and half of the interventions had a universal approach and the other half a selective one. Half of the interventions were evaluated and showed positive results. Conclusions: Although health behaviours are not the main determinants of health inequalities, the majority of the selected documents were based on evaluations of interventions focusing on them.