Interventions to reduce socioeconomic health differences: A review of the international literature

The objective of this study was to review information on evaluatedinterventions to reduce socioeconomic health differences (SEHD)and analyse studies to identify possible conditions for success.The analysed interventions were from published and unpublishedsources. They were evaluated in terms of socioeconomic healthoutcomes. Ninety-eight publications on actual interventionsto reduce SEHD and 31 so-called ‘grey literature’interventions were identified. Many of the interventions describedare reported to be effective. Many of the local experimentalinterventions, however, were not formally evaluated. Structuralmeasures appear to be effective most often, but cannot be takento affect all determinants. Interventions often Involve healtheducation. This, however, only appears to be successful if providinginformation is combined with personal support or structuralmeasures. Many very creative interventions to reduce SEHD havebeen reported. Several appear to be effective, but all addressonly a small aspect of health inequalities. Regrettably thelack of standardized measures and a common methodology hamperour ability to integrate and compare the results. However, allthe studies show that there is room for improvement in our existinghealth policies to reach everyone in our population to the samedegree of effectiveness.