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BMC Public Health
Published in: BMC Public Health 1/2014

Open Access 01-12-2014 | Research article

Social and health policies or interventions to tackle health inequalities in European cities: a scoping review

Authors: Mariona Pons-Vigués, Èlia Diez, Joana Morrison, Sergio Salas-Nicás, Rasmus Hoffmann, Bo Burstrom, Jitse P van Dijk, Carme Borrell

Published in: BMC Public Health | Issue 1/2014

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Abstract

Background

Health inequalities can be tackled with appropriate health and social policies, involving all community groups and governments, from local to global. The objective of this study was to carry out a scoping review on social and health policies or interventions to tackle health inequalities in European cities published in scientific journals.

Methods

Scoping review. The search was done in “PubMed” and the “Sociological Abstracts” database and was limited to articles published between 1995 and 2011. The inclusion criteria were: interventions had to take place in European cities and they had to state the reduction of health inequalities among their objectives.

Results

A total of 54 papers were included, of which 35.2% used an experimental design, and 74.1% were carried out in the United Kingdom. The whole city was the setting in 27.8% of them and 44.4% were based on promoting healthy behaviours. Adults and children were the most frequent target population and half of the interventions had a universal approach and the other half a selective one. Half of the interventions were evaluated and showed positive results.

Conclusions

Although health behaviours are not the main determinants of health inequalities, the majority of the selected documents were based on evaluations of interventions focusing on them.
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Social and health policies or interventions to tackle health inequalities in European cities: a scoping review
Authors
Mariona Pons-Vigués
Èlia Diez
Joana Morrison
Sergio Salas-Nicás
Rasmus Hoffmann
Bo Burstrom
Jitse P van Dijk
Carme Borrell
Publication date
01-12-2014
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Public Health / Issue 1/2014
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2458
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-198

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