Closing the gap in a generation: what more research do we need?

Excerpt

The association between socioeconomic conditions and health is well known. Time and again, research studies and reports show socioeconomic inequalities in a variety of health outcomes across most populations. Variation in the availability of high quality and comparable data in different geographical locations have been previously highlighted as a limitation, particularly for comparisons of inequalities across populations (Kunst 2009; Marmot 2009). In this context, the Commission on Social Determinants of Health was a considerable effort to “marshal the evidence of what can be done to promote health equity” (WHO 2008). While the report acknowledged that “there is enough evidence on the social determinants to act now” one of its main recommendations was that “the evidence base on health inequity, the social determinants of health, and what works to improve them needs further strengthening” (WHO 2008). In other words, more research is needed. Given the extensive literature on socioeconomic inequalities in health, what type of research can help us strengthen the currently available evidence? I will argue that this varies for different health outcomes and will illustrate this with examples. …