Eurohealth Vol 15 No 3

European Commission sets out new actions on health inequalities Methodological issues in the analysis of survey data How do welfare policies contribute to the reduction of health inequalities? Eurohealth is a quarterly publication that provides a forum for researchers, experts and policymakers to express their views on health policy issues and so contribute to a constructive debate on health policy in Europe. The views expressed in Eurohealth are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of LSE Health, Merck & Co.or the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. This issue of Eurohealth is largely devoted to health inequalities, drawing on discussions of a seminar held in May 2009 at the London School of Economics and Political Science and organised in conjunction with the European Commission Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. Many concerns over the extent and consequences of health inequalities between and within Member States have been raised by EU institutions, national governments and other stakeholders. We are delighted that Ana Xavier, Charles Price and Fritz von Nordheim provide a Commission perspective on the proposed actions and support for Member States that are set out in a new Commission Communication Solidarity in Health: Reducing Health Inequalities in the EU. One critical way of strengthening the knowledge base is through routine collection of data on inequalities. This is far from straightforward: Masseria notes that the choice of measure used will influence results. Articles by Allin and Masseria and O'Donnell do suggest that method-ological research is rising to meet the opportunities and challenges created by increasingly rich European survey datasets. These are not however universal developments: Bobak warns that large data gaps remain in central and eastern Europe. In the meantime, another area of limited knowledge, Hennell argues, is in understanding of variation in the social construction of illness across countries and the implications for the use of health care services. Another challenge is to improve our understanding of how EU and national policies actually impact on health inequalities. Examples of national strategic approaches now being developed to address inequalities in France, Hungary and the Netherlands are featured in this issue. Actions are of course not confined to the health system alone: Lundberg reports that social welfare programmes can promote health, but empirical analysis is needed to look at their impact on inequalities in health status. Keeping health inequalities high on European and Member State …