Scenarios for population health inequalities in 2030 in Europe

Health inequalities have been consistently reported across and within European countries and continue to pose major challenges to policy-making. The development of scenarios regarding what could affect population health (PH) inequalities across Europe in the future is considered critical. Scenarios...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Alvarenga, António|||0000-0002-0606-9098, Bana E Costa, Carlos A.|||0000-0001-7906-379X, Borrell i Thió, Carme|||0000-0002-1170-2505, Ferreira, Pedro Lopes, Freitas, Ângela, Freitas, Liliana|||0000-0001-9513-2476, Oliveira, Mónica|||0000-0003-4053-9214, Rodrigues, Teresa C.|||0000-0002-7548-3794, Santana, Paula|||0000-0002-7658-8475, Lopes Santos, Maria, Vieira, Ana|||0000-0003-3863-1070
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:285074
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/285074
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1186/s12939-019-1000-8
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Delphi method
Foresight
Health inequalities
Participatory approach
Policies
Population Health
Scenarios
Socio-technical approach
Stakeholders
Descripción
Sumario:Health inequalities have been consistently reported across and within European countries and continue to pose major challenges to policy-making. The development of scenarios regarding what could affect population health (PH) inequalities across Europe in the future is considered critical. Scenarios can help policy-makers prepare and better cope with fast evolving challenges. This paper describes the three 2030 time-horizon scenarios developed under the EURO-HEALTHY project, depicting the key factors that may affect the evolution of PH inequalities across European regions. A three-stage socio-technical approach was applied: i) identification of drivers (key factors expected to affect the evolution of PH inequalities across European regions until 2030) - this stage engaged in a Web-Delphi process a multidisciplinary panel of 51 experts and other stakeholders representing the different perspectives regarding PH inequalities; ii) generation of scenario structures - different drivers' configurations (i.e. their hypotheses for evolution) were organized into coherent scenario structures using the Extreme-World Method; and iii) validation of scenario structures and generation of scenario narratives. Stages ii) and iii) were conducted in two workshops with a strategic group of 13 experts with a wide view about PH inequalities. The scenario narratives were elaborated with the participants' insights from both the Web-Delphi process and the two workshops, together with the use of evidence (both current and future-oriented) on the different areas within the PH domain. Three scenarios were developed for the evolution of PH inequalities in Europe until 2030: 'Failing Europe' (worst-case but plausible picture of the future), 'Sustainable Prosperity' (best-case but plausible picture of the future), and an interim scenario 'Being Stuck' depicting a 'to the best of our knowledge' evolution. These scenarios show the extent to which a combination of Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental drivers shape future health inequalities, providing information for European policy-makers to reflect upon whether and how to design robust policy solutions to tackle PH inequalities. The EURO-HEALTHY scenarios were designed to inform both policy design and appraisal. They broaden the scope, create awareness and generate insights regarding the evolution of PH inequalities across European regions.