Priorities for Research on Equity and Health: Towards an Equity-Focused Health Research Agenda

Really interesting paper and as it's open access I've highlighted the thing bit that caught my eye rather than the summary points (abstract).

Some of it seems really hard to me! The whole paper is worth a read.

Characteristics of Third Wave Health Research Strategies and Methodologies

1. Go beyond the behavioral and other individual determinants of illness.
2. Examine the intersections among different social hierarchies, such as class and gender, and their cumulative impacts on health status and health inequities.
3. Examine the levels, pathways, and power connections across the “upstream” determinants or root causes of health inequities—that were central to the CSDH's conceptual framework—and the more traditionally investigated determinants of health inequities, such as risk factors or access to care.
4. Treat patterns of health inequity as a social reality in their own terms, requiring social (economic, sociological, political, and cultural) explanation that adds on to the aggregation and interpretation of individual biomedical processes and outcomes.
5. Consider the dynamic (rather than static) nature of equity in different country contexts, introducing a temporal dimension when investigating social structures, public policies, and impacts over the life course.
6. Describe the social institutions and processes that influence the generation and allocation of resources related to health and its social determinants.
7. Focus on how the global context affects choices about resource allocation at national and sub-national levels.
8. Build on active collaboration among researchers and other knowledge producers from different disciplines.
9. Recognize that certain kinds of evidence, such as results from randomized controlled trials, cannot be generated with respect to many interventions that address social determinants of health; therefore, a need exists to embrace diverse methodologies—fit for purpose—including a wide range of study designs, generating qualitative and quantitative data, that provide critical insight on the questions being examined.
10. Involve affected populations, which is often essential to appropriate research designs and their execution.

Source:

Priorities for Research on Equity and Health: Towards an Equity-Focused Health Research Agenda.

Östlin P, Schrecker T, Sadana R, Bonnefoy J, Gilson L, et al. (2011)

PLoS Med 8(11): e1001115. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001115

Click here to go to the full article.

Hat tip: David McDaid, Health Equity Email Network, UK

Disaster Preparedness and the Public Health Agenda webinar

Event status:	Not started (Register) Click here to go to the Webex page with the webinar details
Date and time:	Tuesday, 8 November 2011 14:00 GMT Time (London, GMT)
	Tuesday, 8 November 2011 9:00 Eastern Standard Time (New York, GMT-05:00)
	Tuesday, 8 November 2011 17:00 Saudi Arabia Time (Riyadh, GMT+03:00)
	Tuesday, 8 November 2011 22:00 Singapore Time (Singapore, GMT+08:00)
Panelist(s) Info:	Dr. John Ashton CBE, Director of Public Health and County Medical Officer, UK Organised by the University of Liverpool, England, UK
Duration:	1 hour
Description:	Join this exclusive webinar on disaster preparedness and the public health agenda. Dr. John Ashton CBE, Director of Public Health and County Medical Officer, will discuss the role of the public health profession in the preparation, management, and response to disasters, critical, and major incidents; and the need for a multidisciplinary approach to disaster preparedness. His presentation will explore: The need for a multidisciplinary and multiagency approach to disaster preparedness in a global and local context The current response to disaster preparedness at a global level The role of public health in disaster management Community impact of disasters, critical, and major incidents; and the subsequent recovery phase How contingency planning and disaster preparedness has evolved; and how can we learn from our experiences

How Can We Get the Social Determinants of Health Message on the Public Policy and Public Health Agenda?

A study from Utah, USA that has relevance globally and published as a background WHO paper for the World Conference on Social Determinants of Health in Brazil this month.


The social gradient is deeper 
Inequalities in health resulting in disparities in life expectancies are evident even at the lowest reportable data level, down to the small area or zip code-level. The challenge has always been what to do about it.


Communicating contextualised and actional data
In as much as comprehensive epidemiology reports are helpful and serve various purposes, to act on the evidence, policy makers and public health practitioners need simple, precise, accurate, easy-to-understand,
easy-to-learn, visualizeable information at their constituents’ level. Where reliable data are already available and regularly reported; use technology and  existing health metrics to support the SDH message.  A succinct and visualize-able demographic and health landscape that focuses on vital priorities at the community level can be a mechanism by which the social determinants of health message  could be recognized, acted upon, directed, and evaluated down to the local levels of governance.

Framing the message according to local needs: “What’s wrong? Why does it matter? What should be done about it?”

The problem is not always the lack of data as much as how they are communicated. How we communicate the evidence is strategic in engaging both policy makers and the public. Presented wisely, used effectively, directed to the right audience, within the context of the social determinants of health, data can elicit interest, help inform, engage, advocate, and initiate action. Existing data framed in a manner that speak to community needs and issues that the people can connect with and in a language that people can understand is more likely to resonate across the political spectrum.

Keep repeating the message.

The social determinants of message can get lost in a flurry of competing political and health issues. Marketing the message calls for repeatedly disseminating and reiterating the information to counter the fatalistic mindset towards effecting change.

Engaging the right people in doing the right thing: Having a shared vision and focus of improved health and reduction of health disparities. 

The social determinants of health result from “the way we organize our affairs in society.”7 These factors are so intricately embedded in the realities of daily living that reducing the inequities we have created means partnering with the right people from various sectors ---those who share a vision and have the skills, courage, and resolve to bring about change in the system or with the system.

Click here to download the paper.