Policy implications

Abstract

Chapter 6 (‘Policy implications’) describes how several European countries have tried to reduce health inequalities. Even the well-resourced English strategy (1997–2010) has not reduced health inequalities at the population level, due to a combination of lack of evidence-based interventions and lack of scale of the efforts. Quantitative analyses of actually observed trends in European countries and of the potential impact of equalizing the distribution of risk factors show that reducing relative inequalities in health is almost impossible when overall health improves. It is therefore advisable to aim for reducing absolute inequalities in health, and to avoid overly ambitious quantitative targets. The book ends with a number of partly personal reflections on the sobering conclusions of 30 years of research, but also highlights some new inspirations for continued efforts to reduce health inequalities.