Evaluating equity in health promotion

Abstract

The establishment in March 2005 by the World Health Organization (WHO) of an International Commission on the Social Determinants of Health with the goal "of supporting countries in placing heath equity as a shared goal" (WHO, 2006) constituted a global recognition of the existence of health inequalities and of the necessity for governments to take action to address the social determinants of such health inequalities. Indeed, during the past decade several countries have started to make the reduction of health inequalities an explicit goal of their health and public health policies. Four national health policy orientation documents from four leading Western countries formally identify both improving the health and quality of life of the citizens and reducing health inequalities as overarching public health goals. Those documents are the "Integrated Pan Canadian Healthy Living Strategy" (Secretariat for the Healthy Living Network, 2005), the Swedish Health on Equal Terms Public Health Policy (Hogstedt, Lundgren, Moberg, Pettersson & 'gren, 2004), "Tackling Heath Inequalities: A Program for Action" in the UK (Department of Health, 2003), and "Healthy People 2010" in the US (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2000)*. These key documents stand at the forefront of the global preoccupation with health inequalities as a major population health challenge, recognizing that policies and programs that improve overall population health may also lead to increasing health disparities (Health Disparities Task Group of the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Advisory Committee on Population Health and Health Security, 2005).