Health Research Board

A geography of health inequalities

Lead Researcher:

Dr Janette Rigby

Award Date:

1 October 2010

Host Institution:

National University of Ireland, Maynooth

Scheme:

Health Research Awards

Summary:

Inequalities in health is a topic very high on the health research and policy agenda. In poor countries, infant mortality rates are a key indicator of health status. In more affluent countries, mortality rates are used to assess the health status of the whole population, and premature mortality rates (those who die below a certain age, for example before 65, or before 75) are of particular importance. Within a country, these rates can be calculated for small areas so that the extent of the inequalities can be seen and investigated. The rates are standardised: they take into account the age structure of the areas’ populations. In Ireland, the lack of a geographical set of references for data from death certificates has meant that geographical inequalities could not be produced below county level, and this is too coarse for analysis.

This proposal will devise a mechanism for producing rates of all-age and premature mortality, and mortality for the most common causes of death, using new geocomputational techniques. This will provide a major contribution to the evidence-base in Ireland for health research and policy. The research will also apply new analytical techniques to begin to construct an explanation for the variations in the mortality rates. For example, in one area the most important factor could be occupational group, whereas in another area it could be car ownership. This assists policy-makers in deciding the types of supports areas need to reduce the inequalities, to bring the health outcomes of the areas with the highest mortality rates up towards those with the lowest rates.