[A regional equity profile to assess the impact of social inequalities on determinants and health outcomes in the population residing in Sicily Region (Southern Italy)]

Abstract

Objectives: to build an equity profile for assessing the impact of socioeconomic inequalities on the determinants and health outcome in Sicily (Southern Italy).

Design: descriptive study aimed to define an equity profile in Sicily by using a rich list of indicators of structure of the resident population and of distribution of determinants and health outcome, derived from the integration of available information and scientific evidence at regional level with high local detail.

Setting and participants: the equity profile collects available information on the health status of the population in Sicily, on the determinants, and on the use of health and social services. The characteristics of people or population groups have been explored and can produce inequalities on health which included individual and context socioeconomic status.

Main outcome measures: using available information sources and study results have explored the effects of the disadvantage on health in the region: mortality, morbidity, oncological incidence, reproductive health, and some of their determinants.

Results: the Sicilian population tends to aging. Migration flows tend to compensate the reduction in births in Sicily and it increases the proportion of younger people and women in childbearing age. The proportion of large families tends to get smaller, whereas the proportion of single-component ones increases; the population groups with low education, unemployment, poverty, and income increases. Starting from the first thousand days of life, to continue in the other classes of the population, the different distribution of risk factors on health was identified according to different levels of deprivation.

Conclusions: the Sicilian equity profile has systematized and consolidated previous experiences on the effects of disadvantage on health. Prevention interventions, oriented towards equity, should be based on the results of this study and should take care of the general aspects of actions and, at the same time, focus on vulnerable population groups.

Keywords: equity profile; social inequalities; health determinants; health outcomes..