Health inequalities - Breaking down silos

Abstract

Abstract The Public Health Agency of Sweden has a national responsibility to ensure good public health. The agency's mission is to develop and support society's work to promote health, prevent illness and protect against various forms of health threats. The vision is to strengthen the development of society through good population health. The agency has a national responsibility to halt avoidable health gaps within a generation, through creation of favourable societal conditions designed to impact good and equal health for the population. Public health monitoring and reporting aims at providing a broader description of the state and trends of public health in Sweden through data linkages and data on self-reported health. In 2018, the Swedish Government decided on a new public health goal and 8 target areas. The 8 areas reflect on various social determinants to achieve equitable health in Sweden within one generation. These determinants of health are influenced by political decisions as well as individual choices. The Public Health Policy is therefore a cross-sectoral target structure for the overall public health work and points out the need to focus on bridging inequality gaps in health and the social determinants of health. It is important to reflect upon how the advancement in monitoring tools and the new Public Health Policy goal can contribute to halting inequities. How do we know if we are reaching the goal? The focus of the presentation is therefore to highlight Sweden's public health reporting today, the ongoing work to improve the reporting of health and its determinants, with regard to inequities in health. The presentation will also give examples of in-depth reports of different public health challenges, web-based indicator systems used for monitoring health trends in Sweden and public health reports. Examples of the Agency's coordination and support for regional and local public health work will also be discussed.