Social health inequalities in Swedish children and adolescents – a systematic review, second edition

Writer:	Statens folkhälsoinstitut
Publishing year:	2011
ISBN:	978-91-7257-867-8
Report number:	A 2011:11
Possible to order:	No

One of the Swedish public health objectives concerns conditions during childhood and adolescence. The Swedish national institute of public health has the assignment to analyze and communicate what can be done to promote health among children and adolescents.

There is clear evidence that good social and economic conditions promote health throughout life. Conditions during childhood affect health later in life and are consequently of great importance in health promotion. Therefore, we wanted to review the evidence of social health inequalities in Swedish children and adolescents. This report is an updated version of an earlier report in this matter that was published in 2002.

The report is primarily addressed to policy makers. We hope that the clear pattern presented (that most health problems were found to be more common in children and adolescents that live in less favourable social circumstances) can result in policy actions to minimize social health inequalities in children and adolescents.