A composite index; socioeconomic deprivation and coverage of reproductive and maternal health interventions.

Objective: To examine inequalities in the coverage of reproductive and maternal health interventions in low- and middle-income countries and territories using a composite index of socioeconomic deprivation status. Methods: We obtained data on education and living standards from national household surveys conducted between 2015 and 2019 to calculate socioeconomic deprivation status. We assessed the coverage of reproductive and maternal health interventions, using three indicators: (i) demand for family planning satisfied with modern methods; (ii) women who received antenatal care in at least four visits; and (iii) the presence of a skilled attendant at delivery. Absolute and relative inequalities were evaluated both directly and using the slope index of inequality and the concentration index. Findings: In the 73 countries and territories with available data, the median proportions of deprivation were 41% in the low-income category, 11% in the lower-middle-income category and less than 1% in the upper-middle-income category. The coverage analysis, conducted for 48 countries with sufficient data, showed consistently lower median coverage among deprived households across all health indicators. The coverage of skilled attendant at delivery showed the largest inequalities, where coverage among the socioeconomically deprived was substantially lower in almost all countries. Antenatal care visits and demand for family planning satisfied with modern methods also showed significant disparities, favouring the less deprived population. Conclusion: The findings highlight persistent disparities in the coverage of reproductive and maternal health interventions, requiring efforts to reduce those disparities and improve coverage, particularly for skilled attendant at delivery.

New global indicator for workers' health: mortality rate from diseases attributable to selected occupational risk factors.

Through sustainable development goals 3 and 8 and other policies, countries have committed to protect and promote workers' health by reducing the work-related burden of disease. To monitor progress on these commitments, indicators that capture the work-related burden of disease should be available for monitoring workers' health and sustainable development. The World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization estimate that only 363 283 (19%) of 1 879 890 work-related deaths globally in 2016 were due to injuries, whereas 1 516 607 (81%) deaths were due to diseases. Most monitoring systems focusing on workers' health or sustainable development, such as the global indicator framework for the sustainable development goals, include an indicator on the burden of occupational injuries. Few such systems, however, have an indicator on the burden of work-related diseases. To address this gap, we present a new global indicator: mortality rate from diseases attributable to selected occupational risk factors, by disease, risk factor, sex and age group. We outline the policy rationale of the indicator, describe its data sources and methods of calculation, and report and analyse the official indicator for 183 countries. We also provide examples of the use of the indicator in national workers' health monitoring systems and highlight the indicator's strengths and limitations. We conclude that integrating the new indicator into monitoring systems will provide more comprehensive and accurate surveillance of workers' health, and allow harmonization across global, regional and national monitoring systems. Inequalities in workers' health can be analysed and the evidence base can be improved towards more effective policy and systems on workers' health.

Par le biais des objectifs de développement durable 3 et 8 ainsi que d'autres mesures, plusieurs pays se sont engagés à protéger et promouvoir la santé des travailleurs en réduisant l'impact des maladies liées au travail. Mais pour évaluer leurs progrès en la matière, il convient de mettre en place des indicateurs estimant l'impact des maladies liées au travail afin de placer le développement durable et la santé des travailleurs sous surveillance. D'après l'Organisation mondiale de la Santé et l'Organisation internationale du Travail, seulement 363 283 (19%) des 1 879 890 décès liés au travail dans le monde en 2016 découlaient de blessures, tandis que 1 516 607 (81%) d'entre eux étaient causés par des maladies. La plupart des systèmes de surveillance qui s'intéressent à la santé des travailleurs ou au développement durable, comme le cadre mondial d'indicateurs pour les objectifs de développement durable, comportent un indicateur relatif à l'impact des accidents de travail. Cependant, rares sont ceux qui possèdent un indicateur concernant l'impact des maladies professionnelles. Pour combler cette lacune, nous dévoilons un nouvel indicateur mondial: le taux de mortalité dû aux maladies attribuables à certains facteurs de risque professionnels classé par maladie, facteur de risque, sexe et catégorie d'âge. Nous exposons le motif politique de l'indicateur, décrivons l'origine des données et les méthodes de calcul, et communiquons et analysons l'indicateur officiel pour 183 pays. Nous fournissons également des exemples de la façon dont l'indicateur peut être utilisé dans des systèmes nationaux de surveillance de la santé des travailleurs et soulignons ses forces et faiblesses. Nous concluons en affirmant que l'intégration de ce nouvel indicateur dans les systèmes de surveillance offrira un suivi plus complet et précis de la santé des travailleurs et ouvrira la voie à une harmonisation des systèmes mondiaux, nationaux et régionaux. Il est possible d'analyser les inégalités en matière de santé des travailleurs et d'en améliorer les bases factuelles afin d'établir des politiques et systèmes plus efficaces dans ce domaine.

A través de los objetivos de desarrollo sostenible 3 y 8 y de otras políticas, los países se han comprometido a proteger y promover la salud de los trabajadores reduciendo la carga de morbilidad relacionada con el trabajo. Para supervisar los avances en el cumplimiento de estos compromisos, debería disponerse de indicadores que reflejen la carga de morbilidad relacionada con el trabajo, a fin de controlar la salud de los trabajadores y el desarrollo sostenible. La Organización Mundial de la Salud y la Organización Internacional del Trabajo estiman que solo 363 283 (19%) de las 1 879 890 muertes relacionadas con el trabajo a nivel mundial en 2016 se debieron a lesiones, mientras que 1 516 607 (81%) muertes se debieron a enfermedades. La mayoría de los sistemas de vigilancia centrados en la salud de los trabajadores o el desarrollo sostenible, como el marco de indicadores mundiales para los objetivos de desarrollo sostenible, incluyen un indicador sobre la carga de las lesiones laborales. No obstante, pocos de estos sistemas cuentan con un indicador sobre la carga de las enfermedades relacionadas con el trabajo. Para subsanar esta carencia, presentamos un nuevo indicador mundial: la tasa de mortalidad por enfermedades atribuibles a factores de riesgo laborales seleccionados, por enfermedad, factor de riesgo, sexo y grupo de edad. Describimos la justificación política del indicador, describimos sus fuentes de datos y métodos de cálculo, e informamos y analizamos el indicador oficial para 183 países. También proporcionamos ejemplos del uso del indicador en los sistemas nacionales de vigilancia de la salud de los trabajadores y destacamos las ventajas y las limitaciones del indicador. Concluimos que la integración del nuevo indicador en los sistemas de vigilancia proporcionará una vigilancia más exhaustiva y precisa de la salud de los trabajadores, y permitirá la armonización entre los sistemas de vigilancia mundiales, regionales y nacionales. Se podrán analizar las desigualdades en la salud de los trabajadores y se podrá mejorar la base de evidencias para lograr políticas y sistemas más eficaces en materia de salud de los trabajadores.

Inequality in Immunization: Holding on to Equity as We 'Catch Up'.

Immunization, hailed as one of the most successful public health interventions in the world, has contributed to major advancements in health as well as social and economic development [...].

Inequalities in Immunization against Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Protection at Birth Coverage Using Household Health Survey Data from 76 Countries.

Substantial progress in maternal and neonatal tetanus elimination has been made in the past 40 years, with dramatic reductions in neonatal tetanus incidence and mortality. However, twelve countries have still not achieved maternal and neonatal tetanus elimination, and many countries that have achieved elimination do not meet key sustainability thresholds to ensure long-lasting elimination. As maternal and neonatal tetanus is a vaccine-preventable disease (with coverage of the infant conferred by maternal immunization during and prior to pregnancy), maternal tetanus immunization coverage is a key metric for monitoring progress towards, equity in, and sustainability of tetanus elimination. In this study, we examine inequalities in tetanus protection at birth, a measure of maternal immunization coverage, across 76 countries and four dimensions of inequality via disaggregated data and summary measures of inequality. We find that substantial inequalities in coverage exist for wealth (with lower coverage among poorer wealth quintiles), maternal age (with lower coverage among younger mothers), maternal education (with lower coverage among less educated mothers), and place of residence (with lower coverage in rural areas). Inequalities existed for all dimensions across low- and lower-middle-income countries, and across maternal education and place of residence across upper-middle-income countries. Though global coverage changed little over the time period 2001-2020, this obscured substantial heterogeneity across countries. Notably, several countries had substantial increases in coverage accompanied by decreases in inequality, highlighting the need for equity considerations in maternal and neonatal tetanus elimination and sustainability efforts.

Strengthening and expanding health inequality monitoring for the advancement of health equity: a review of WHO resources and contributions.

As part of its commitment to advance health equity, the World Health Organization (WHO) has a developed area of work to promote and strengthen health inequality monitoring. This includes an emphasis on the collection, analysis and use of disaggregated health data, which are central to evidence-informed decision making. The aim of this paper is to review WHO's work on health inequality monitoring, namely the 2022-27 Inequality monitoring and analysis strategy and corresponding activities, resources and tools. The strategy has three goals pertaining to: strengthening capacity for health inequality monitoring; generating and disseminating the latest evidence on health inequality and supporting data disaggregation; and developing and refining health inequality monitoring methods, resources and best practices. In alignment with these goals, WHO has published reference materials focused on conceptual approaches to health inequality monitoring, which are applied in the global State of Inequality report series. The Health Inequality Monitoring eLearning channel on OpenWHO and capacity building workshops and webinars facilitate the uptake and application of inequality monitoring practices across diverse settings and stakeholders. A key tool available to support the analysis and reporting aspects of health inequality monitoring is the Health Equity Assessment Toolkit (HEAT) application, which allows users to explore data interactively. The Health Inequality Data Repository, a collection of the largest publicly available database of disaggregated data from around the globe, further enables inequality monitoring and analyses. This collection of resources is an important contribution to promote health inequality monitoring across diverse settings. The uptake of evidence from health inequality monitoring remains crucial to the advancement of equity as part of global health and development initiatives.

Within-Country Inequality in COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage: A Scoping Review of Academic Literature.

Since December 2020, COVID-19 vaccines have become increasingly available to populations around the globe. A growing body of research has characterised inequalities in COVID-19 vaccination coverage. This scoping review aims to locate, select and assess research articles that report on within-country inequalities in COVID-19 vaccination coverage, and to provide a preliminary overview of inequality trends for selected dimensions of inequality. We applied a systematic search strategy across electronic databases with no language or date restrictions. Our inclusion criteria specified research articles or reports that analysed inequality in COVID-19 vaccination coverage according to one or more socioeconomic, demographic or geographic dimension of inequality. We developed a data extraction template to compile findings. The scoping review was carried out using the PRISMA-ScR checklist. A total of 167 articles met our inclusion criteria, of which half (n = 83) were conducted in the United States. Articles focused on vaccine initiation, full vaccination and/or receipt of booster. Diverse dimensions of inequality were explored, most frequently relating to age (n = 127 articles), race/ethnicity (n = 117 articles) and sex/gender (n = 103 articles). Preliminary assessments of inequality trends showed higher coverage among older population groups, with mixed findings for sex/gender. Global research efforts should be expanded across settings to understand patterns of inequality and strengthen equity in vaccine policies, planning and implementation.

Global state of education-related inequality in COVID-19 vaccine coverage, structural barriers, vaccine hesitancy, and vaccine refusal: findings from the Global COVID-19 Trends and Impact Survey.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 vaccine coverage and experiences of structural and attitudinal barriers to vaccination vary across populations. Education-related inequality in COVID-19 vaccine coverage and barriers within and between countries can provide insight into the hypothesised role of education as a correlate of vaccine access and acceptability. We aimed to characterise patterns of within-country education-related inequality in COVID-19 vaccine indicators across 90 countries. METHODS: This study used data from the University of Maryland Social Data Science Center Global COVID-19 Trends and Impact Survey. Data from 90 countries (more than 14 million participants aged 18 years and older) were included in our analyses. We assessed education-related inequalities globally, across country-income groupings, and nationally for four indicators (self-reported receipt of COVID-19 vaccine, structural barriers to vaccination, vaccine hesitancy, and vaccine refusal) for the study period June 1-Dec 31, 2021. We calculated an absolute summary measure of inequality to assess the latest situation of inequality and time trends and explored the association between government vaccine availability policies and education-related inequality. FINDINGS: Nearly all countries had higher self-reported receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine among the most educated respondents than the least educated respondents. Education-related inequality in structural barriers, vaccine hesitancy, and vaccine refusal varied across countries, and was most pronounced in high-income countries, overall. Low-income and lower-middle-income countries reported widespread experiences of structural barriers and high levels of vaccine hesitancy alongside low levels of education-related inequality. Globally, vaccine hesitancy in unvaccinated people was higher among those with lower education and vaccine refusal was higher among those with higher education, especially in high-income countries. Over the study period, education-related inequalities in self-reported receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine declined, globally and across all country income groupings. Government policies expanding vaccine availability were associated with lower education-related inequality in self-reported receipt of vaccine. INTERPRETATION: This study serves as a baseline for continued inequality monitoring and could help to inform targeted actions for the equitable uptake of vaccines. FUNDING: Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

Health Equity Assessment Toolkit (HEAT and HEAT Plus): exploring inequalities in the COVID-19 pandemic era.

BACKGROUND: The Sustainable Development Goals have helped to focus attention on the importance of reducing inequality and 'leaving no one behind'. Monitoring health inequalities is essential for providing evidence to inform policies, programmes and practices that can close existing gaps and achieve health equity. The Health Equity Assessment Toolkit (HEAT and HEAT Plus) software was developed by the World Health Organization to facilitate the assessment of within-country health inequalities. RESULTS: HEAT contains a built-in database of disaggregated health data, while HEAT Plus allows users to upload and analyze inequalities using their own datasets. Version 4.0 of the software incorporated enhancements to the toolkit's capacity for equity assessments. This includes a multilingual interface, interactive and downloadable visualizations, flexibility to analyze inequalities using any dataset of disaggregated data, and the built-in calculation of 19 summary measures of inequality. This paper outlines the improved features and functionalities of the HEAT and HEAT Plus software since their original release, highlighted through an example of how the toolkit can be used to assess inequalities in the COVID-19 pandemic era. CONCLUSIONS: The features of the HEAT and HEAT Plus software make it a valuable tool for analyzing and reporting inequalities related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as its indirect impacts on inequalities in other health and non-health areas, providing evidence to inform equity-oriented interventions and strategies.

Education-related inequalities in beliefs and behaviors pertaining to COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions.

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus pandemic has exposed existing social inequalities in relation to disease preventive behaviors, risk of exposure, testing and healthcare access, and consequences as a result of illness and containment measures across different population groups. However, due to a lack of data, to date there has been limited evidence of the extent of such within-country inequalities globally. METHODS: We examined education-related inequalities in four COVID-19 prevention and testing indicators within 90 countries, using data from the University of Maryland Social Data Science Center Global COVID-19 Trends and Impact Survey, in partnership with Facebook, over the period 1 June 2021 to 31 December 2021. The overall level of education-related inequalities, as well as how they differ across country income groups and how they have changed over time were analyzed using the Slope Index of Inequality (SII) and the Relative Index of Inequality (RII). We also assessed whether these education-related inequalities were associated with government policies and responses. RESULTS: Education-related inequalities in beliefs, mask wearing, social distancing and testing varied across the study countries. Mask wearing and beliefs in the effectiveness of social distancing and mask wearing were overall more common among people with a higher level of education. Even after controlling for other sociodemographic and health-related factors, social distancing practice was higher among the most educated in low/lower middle income countries, but was higher overall among the least educated in high income countries. Overall there were low education-related inequalities in COVID-19 testing, though there was variation across countries. CONCLUSIONS: The study highlights important within-country education-related differences in COVID-19 beliefs, preventive behaviors and testing, as well as differing trends across country income groups. This has implications for considering and targeting specific population groups when designing public health interventions and messaging during the COVID-19 pandemic and future health emergencies.

Subnational Gender Inequality and Childhood Immunization: An Ecological Analysis of the Subnational Gender Development Index and DTP Coverage Outcomes across 57 Countries.

The role of gender inequality in childhood immunization is an emerging area of focus for global efforts to improve immunization coverage and equity. Recent studies have examined the relationship between gender inequality and childhood immunization at national as well as individual levels; we hypothesize that the demonstrated relationship between greater gender equality and higher immunization coverage will also be evident when examining subnational-level data. We thus conducted an ecological analysis examining the association between the Subnational Gender Development Index (SGDI) and two measures of immunization-zero-dose diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) prevalence and 3-dose DTP coverage. Using data from 2010-2019 across 702 subnational regions within 57 countries, we assessed these relationships using fractional logistic regression models, as well as a series of analyses to account for the nested geographies of subnational regions within countries. Subnational regions were dichotomized to higher gender inequality (top quintile of SGDI) and lower gender inequality (lower four quintiles of SGDI). In adjusted models, we find that subnational regions with higher gender inequality (favoring men) are expected to have 5.8 percentage points greater zero-dose prevalence than regions with lower inequality [16.4% (95% confidence interval (CI) 14.5-18.4%) in higher-inequality regions versus 10.6% (95% CI 9.5-11.7%) in lower-inequality regions], and 8.2 percentage points lower DTP3 immunization coverage [71.0% (95% CI 68.3-73.7%) in higher-inequality regions versus 79.2% (95% CI 77.7-80.7%) in lower-inequality regions]. In models accounting for country-level clustering of gender inequality, the magnitude and strength of associations are reduced somewhat, but remain statistically significant in the hypothesized direction. In conjunction with published work demonstrating meaningful associations between greater gender equality and better childhood immunization outcomes in individual- and country-level analyses, these findings lend further strength to calls for efforts towards greater gender equality to improve childhood immunization and child health outcomes broadly.