Health inequalities are worsening across Europe, says WHO

Despite improvements in health overall in Europe, health inequalities are worsening, a report by the World Health Organization has found.1

The report, which covers the 53 countries of WHO’s European region, warned that the global financial crisis has brought “conditions of great hardship to parts of the region.” It said that the crisis was more “profound and extended than most people predicted” and “exposed stark social and economic inequities within and between countries.”

Health inequities are worse in the eastern part of the region, said Michael Marmot, chairman of the review and director of the Institute of Health Equity at University College London, in the foreword to …