Evaluating the Impact of Structural Policies on Health Inequalities and their Social Determinants, and Fostering Change (SOPHIE)
Health inequalities are unfair and avoidable differences in health between population groups defined socially, economically, demographically or geographically. They are strongly affected by the circumstances in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, and by the policies influencing these circumstances.
SOPHIE aims to generate new evidence on the impact of structural policies on health inequalities, and to develop innovative methodologies for the evaluation of these policies in Europe.
This project is coordinated by Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona and funded from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013, call Health-2011) under grant agreement n° 278173.
Click here to read the project conclusions or Click here to read a brief summary in Spanish.
Objectives
To generate new evidence on how structural policies - macro-economy, welfare state, employment relations, unemployment, built environment and housing policies - impact the determinants of health inequalities by gender, migration status and socio-economic position.
To generate evidence on how gender-oriented and immigration-related policies impact health inequalities, as well as the determinants of these inequalities.
To develop, refine and apply innovative methods for the identification and evaluation of how structural policies impact health inequalities at the European, national and local levels.
To develop, refine and apply innovative methodologies to increase the involvement of affected stakeholders (civil society, deprived social classes and ethnic minorities, women, immigrants) in the identification, design and evaluation of policies to reduce health inequalities.
To disseminate the findings and recommendations on how structural policies reduce health inequalities by implementing strong knowledge translation approaches to affected communities, stakeholders and responsible policymakers.
Timeline
The project started in November 2011 and is expected to be completed in October 2015.
