Participation of disadvantaged school age children (7-18) in health inequality projects

Abstract

Abstract The descriptive research was conducted in the period from September until December 2018 involving projects tackling health inequalities of children 8-17 years old. The sample included 10 projects funded by the Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection from its 3rd Health Programme (2014-2020) listed on the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency website. The study methods involved desk review of 10 selected projects, 6 semi-structured questioners and 6 interviews. Data were analyzed according to 4 participatory principles: relationship building, storytelling, strategizing action and supporting organizational structures to support execution of these actions, as outlined in the Leadership, Organizing and Action: Leading Change course thought by the Harvard School of Public Health. Results The preliminary finding is that none of the ten selected projects have identified children 7-18 years old as a primary target group. Majority of the projects (4 out of 6) involve sort of relationship building with children, while storytelling is used by a smaller number of projects (2 out of 10). All projects (6 out of 6) involve children just in the implementation phase focusing on educating children and none of them in the project design phase. Moreover, children covered by the implementation are mainly included through schools (8 out of 10) due to a missing parent consent for interacting with most disadvantaged children that are not in schools. Conclusions There is a serious lack of awareness on the importance of meaningfully engaging disadvantaged children in health programming processes for decreasing existing health inequalities. Due to a significant lack of meaningful participation of disadvantaged children in majority projects tackling health inequalities of school-age children in Europe there is a serious risk of having these inequalities increased rather than overcome, despite significant financial and human investments. Key messages The most disadvantaged children should be meaningfully engaged in design, implementation and evaluation of health inequality projects that are of their immediate concern. There is a need for more in depth research on health inequalities faced by school age children (7-18) that are out of educational system.