Social inequality in health: revisiting moments and trends in 50 years of publication of RSP

Abstract

This study describes the frequency and types of articles on social inequalities in health published in 50 years of the Revista de Saúde Pública, taking as reference some milestones that were used as guidelines to develop the research on this theme. Checking titles, keywords and abstracts or full texts, we identified 288 articles whose central or secondary focus was social inequalities in health. Corresponding to just 1.8% in the initial years, articles on social inequalities in health have represent 10.1% of the articles published in the last decade. The designs used were mainly cross-sectional (58.0%) and ecological (18.1%). The most analyzed themes were: food/nutrition (20.8%), mortality (13.5%), infectious diseases (10.1%), oral health (9.0%), and health services (8.7%). Articles focused on the analysis of racial inequalities in health amounted to 6.9%. Few articles monitored the trends of social inequalities in health, essential enterprise to assess and support interventions, and an even smaller number evaluated the impact of policies and programs on the reduction of social inequalities in health.

Enteric parasitic infections in children and dogs in resource-poor communities in northeastern Brazil: Identifying priority prevention and control areas

“…The strong association of poverty with the endemic of enteric parasites is very clear in this study. This study calls into question the effectiveness of the anti-poverty program Bolsa Família [53] on the poverty and health of these populations and on which the majority of the rural population of Ilhéus depends to survive. Since 2003, this program has sought to raise the health condition of populations in a state of poverty and extreme poverty through the conditional cash transfer to families that have a monthly per capita incomes lower than U$ 45.29 [54,55] In fact, the Bolsa Família has only been a palliative solution for the complexity of the problems related to poverty.…”

Utilização de anti-hipertensivos e antidiabéticos no Brasil: análise das diferenças socioeconômicas. Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde 2013

“…Research shows that social inequalities are present in various areas of health 6,7,8 and particularly with regard to medicine use 8 . Some studies have analyzed inequalities in hypertensive RESUMO: Objetivos: Avaliar a magnitude de desigualdades socioeconômicas e demográficas da utilização de medicamentos para controle de hipertensão arterial e diabetes mellitus na população brasileira.…”

Spatial inequality of dental caries in the Brazilian territory

“…Health has been understood as the result of the social organization of production, which is affected by multiple factors, such as housing, food, education, work, income, environment, and access to goods and essential services, among others. 1 According to the Organic Law of Health, 2 health levels of the Brazilian population express the social and economic organization of the country. Oral health -as an integral part of health as a whole -is also included in this context and it is influenced by the same factors, in particular by the socioeconomic conditions of the population.…”