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Global climate change has an impact on health regarding its morbidity and mortality data as well as on the health care system. The connection between climate change and health has many serious consequences. There are determinative socioeconomic inequalities regarding climate vulnerability. The relevant solution of these challenges is an important task for national and local policies. The number, frequency and period of heat waves will increase in Europe as well as in Hungary in the future. Our project is based on this fact, and the main aim of this research was to apply a climate vulnerability model to analyse health risks and public health consequences of heat waves. This study presents the indicators of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity, and explains the method of climate vulnerability model, too. Using climate vulnerability examination could help us to define regional differences at microregional level, to assign the most vulnerable areas in the country, and to discover typical spatial patterns of climate vulnerability. Summing up, climate vulnerability regarding heat waves has special spatial distribution in Hungary according to the increasing vulnerability among different parts of the country. There are some regions where higher level of exposure goes together with more sensitivity and lower level of adaptive capacity which can result in more or most vulnerability. These regions have special geographical position within Hungary. Stronger climate awareness and improving adaptive conditions will be a priority for making new health care strategies in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The interpretation of the social factors defining health inequalities presumes that during a crisis, not only does the labour market position and the level of income count from a health point of view, also the level and growth of already existing social and health inequalities count. How did the economic regime and the appearance of unemployment influence life chances after 1990? Do regional differences unequivocally prove a western- eastern split in health inequalities? Does favourable socio-economic environment and low unemployment always mean better life chances? To answer these questions, we used regional analytical methods. In order to explain cause-and-effect correspondences, we justified the link between unemployment and life chances with regression calculations. The micro-regional difference between the most and least favourable average life expectancy at birth is 7.1 years, which is larger than in the counties (3.1 years). The connection between unemployment and life expectancy is of medium-strength on the level of micro-regions, and from 2009 to 2010 it has become stronger, especially in the case of males' life span. Fundamentally, socio-economic environment and quality of life influence health conditions; therefore, the current task is to interpret the inequalities of healthrelated quality of life within Hungary, from the national level through the county level to the level of microregions and settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is unquestionable that the crisis has been taking effect on the people's state of health, although the impacts are complex. How did the crisis of transition result health deterioration for those social groups who were most affected by unemployment and poverty at the beginning of the 1990s? Does the present crisis have effects on health and life expectancy at all? The main goal of this study is to emphasize primarily the relationship between unemployment and life span, and is also to analyse the spatial dimension of health inequalities during the terms of crisis in Hungary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]