| Title |
The effects of public health policies on health inequalities in high-income countries: an umbrella review
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
BMC Public Health, July 2018
|
| DOI | 10.1186/s12889-018-5677-1 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Katie Thomson, Frances Hillier-Brown, Adam Todd, Courtney McNamara, Tim Huijts, Clare Bambra |
| Abstract |
Socio-economic inequalities are associated with unequal exposure to social, economic and environmental risk factors, which in turn contribute to health inequalities. Understanding the impact of specific public health policy interventions will help to establish causality in terms of the effects on health inequalities. Systematic review methodology was used to identify systematic reviews from high-income countries that describe the health equity effects of upstream public health interventions. Twenty databases were searched from their start date until May 2017. The quality of the included articles was determined using the Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews tool (AMSTAR). Twenty-nine systematic reviews were identified reporting 150 unique relevant primary studies. The reviews summarised evidence of all types of primary and secondary prevention policies (fiscal, regulation, education, preventative treatment and screening) across seven public health domains (tobacco, alcohol, food and nutrition, reproductive health services, the control of infectious diseases, the environment and workplace regulations). There were no systematic reviews of interventions targeting mental health. Results were mixed across the public health domains; some policy interventions were shown to reduce health inequalities (e.g. food subsidy programmes, immunisations), others have no effect and some interventions appear to increase inequalities (e.g. 20 mph and low emission zones). The quality of the included reviews (and their primary studies) were generally poor and clear gaps in the evidence base have been highlighted. The review does tentatively suggest interventions that policy makers might use to reduce health inequalities, although whether the programmes are transferable between high-income countries remains unclear. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42016025283. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 192 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 81 | 42% |
| United States | 9 | 5% |
| Spain | 7 | 4% |
| Ireland | 5 | 3% |
| Canada | 4 | 2% |
| Australia | 3 | 2% |
| Netherlands | 3 | 2% |
| France | 2 | 1% |
| Andorra | 1 | <1% |
| Other | 7 | 4% |
| Unknown | 70 | 36% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 95 | 49% |
| Scientists | 48 | 25% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 44 | 23% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 5 | 3% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 396 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 396 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Master | 63 | 16% |
| Researcher | 51 | 13% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 38 | 10% |
| Student > Bachelor | 35 | 9% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 16 | 4% |
| Other | 61 | 15% |
| Unknown | 132 | 33% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine and Dentistry | 65 | 16% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 59 | 15% |
| Social Sciences | 39 | 10% |
| Economics, Econometrics and Finance | 17 | 4% |
| Psychology | 10 | 3% |
| Other | 58 | 15% |
| Unknown | 148 | 37% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 170. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 21 November 2023.
All research outputs
#242,263
of 25,701,027 outputs
Outputs from BMC Public Health
#219
of 17,776 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#5,108
of 341,093 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Public Health
#3
of 344 outputs
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