Health inequality: what does it mean and how can we measure it?

Reducing socioeconomic inequalities in health has become an important government objective. International organizations, such as the WHO, have played an important role providing the principles to encourage action in many countries. Evidence of socioeconomic inequalities in health is widespread. National and cross-national research has led to the development of a new set of methodological tools to address the challenges that the available data present. Several methods have been used in the literature to measure inequalities in health; the concentration index approach is becoming widely used. In the future, the research agenda will continue to shift away from documenting health inequalities toward efforts to support the development of policies to improve the health of the most deprived populations and to reduce inequalities in health.