Abstract
Despite policy intentions and many interventions aimed at reducing socioeconomic health inequalities in recent decades in the Netherlands and other affluent countries, these inequalities have not been reduced. Based on a narrative literature review, this paper aims to increase insight into why socioeconomic health inequalities are so persistent and build a way forward for improved approaches from a theoretical perspective. Firstly, we present relevant theories focusing on individual determinants of health-related behaviors. Thereafter, we present theories that take into account determinants of the individual level and the environmental level. Lastly, we show the complexity of the system of individual determinants, environmental determinants and behavior change for low socioeconomic position (SEP) groups and describe the next steps in developing and evaluating future effective approaches. These steps include systems thinking, a complex whole-system approach and participation of all stakeholders in system change.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 8384 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-17 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue number | 14 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2 Jul 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Funding: This project was funded by the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw), Den Haag, The Netherlands, under Grant number 531001314.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Funding
Funding: This project was funded by the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw), Den Haag, The Netherlands, under Grant number 531001314.
Keywords
- complex whole-system approach
- narrative literature review
- socioeconomic health inequalities
- systems thinking
- theoretical models
