Reviews of interventions to reduce social inequalities in health: research and policy implications

The Netherlands government commissioned a review of the literature on evaluated interventions to reduce socio-economic health differences. This was to serve as the basis for a second research programme that would focus on evaluating interventions. The review purposely included as many local-level interventions as possible, even though these were often not formally published, and were reported only in the so-called 'grey' literature. More than two-thirds of the interventions identified used health education methods in some way. The most successful ones always combined providing information with either structural measures or per sonal support. Many of the local community interventions were a very diverse mixture of activities, most of which could be classified as health promotion. The review offers a good starting point for a policy to reduce socio-economic health differences, but also shows how little we have invested in the past to gain experience systematically with interventions that can be transferred to other settings. Research and policy implications are drawn out in the final sections.