Inequalities in Health in Scotland : What Are They and What Can We Do About Them?
Sally Macintyre has published an Occasional Paper on Inequalities in Health in Scotland : What Are They and What Can We Do About Them? This was written for the Ministerial Task Force on Health Inequalities and was discussed at the first meeting of the task force on 03 October 2007. The paper outlines the key facts about socio-economic inequalities in health in Scotland. She recommends key principles for effective policies to reduce inequalities in health. These include:
- Maintaining and extending equity in health and welfare systems
- Levelling up, not down
- Reducing inequalities in life circumstances, especially education, employment and income
- Prioritising early years interventions, and families with children
Summarising lessons learned from research on how best to reduce inequalities in health, the paper recommends putting a high priority on changes in the physical and social environment (for example, building and planning regulations, fiscal policies, and reducing price barriers to health-promoting goods and services), rather than information-based campaigns or interventions which require people to opt in.