Conceptual models of health, its determinants and the measurement of inequalities

Subject

The research project aims to:

• Determine the scope of monitoring for a particular health problem, including some appropriate indicators and criteria for dividing the population into groups (the size of inequalities);
• Obtain i personal data required from sources statistics officers;
• Analyze the latter with basic and advanced statistical techniques;
• Present the results to a large and appropriately motivated audience, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses; Implement change policies, especially in those areas that present characteristics of priority for intervention, also analyzing their implications.

Learning outcomes

The objectives of our project can be summarized as follows:

1. To present some reflections developed by social epidemiology and studies on the social determinants of health;
2. To underline the importance of the conceptual model proposed by the World Health Organization, developed by the Commission on the Social Determinants of Health;
3. Present technical considerations for measuring health inequalities, consisting in selecting relevant dimensions of these and then proceeding to their quantification and categorization (socioeconomic status, level of education, occupation, place of residence, age, sex);
4. Disaggregate health data to explore which population subgroups have better or worse health;
5. Calculate summary measures of inequalities drawn from data disaggregated into two or more subgroups, so as to express them in both absolute and relative form;
6. To explore whether socioeconomic conditions or lifestyles are associated with demand for emergency services, given the overcrowding that often exists in hospital emergency rooms;
7. Discuss and briefly present some considerations regarding data sources, results and implementation of change policies.

Expected results

The expected result consists in the creation of a report useful for developing further analyses in order to identify the causes underlying inequalities, identifying appropriate actions to counteract them.