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Unfavorable health trends among the lowly educated have recently been reported from the United States. We analyzed health trends by education in European countries, paying particular attention to the possibility of recent trend interruptions, including interruptions related to the impact of the 2008 financial crisis. We collected and harmonized data on mortality from ca 1980 to ca 2014 for 17 countries covering 9.8 million deaths and data on self-reported morbidity from ca 2002 to ca 2014 for 27 countries covering 350,000 survey respondents. We used interrupted time-series analyses to study changes over time and country-fixed effects analyses to study the impact of crisis-related economic conditions on health outcomes. Recent trends were more favorable than in previous decades, particularly in Eastern Europe, where mortality started to decline among lowly educated men and where the decline in less-than-good self-assessed health accelerated, resulting in some narrowing of health inequalities. In Western Europe, mortality has continued to decline among the lowly and highly educated, and although the decline of less-than-good self-assessed health slowed in countries severely hit by the financial crisis, this affected lowly and highly educated equally. Crisis-related economic conditions were not associated with widening health inequalities. Our results show that the unfavorable trends observed in the United States are not found in Europe. There has also been no discernible short-term impact of the crisis on health inequalities at the population level. Both findings suggest that European countries have been successful in avoiding an aggravation of health inequalities., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Little is known about the effectiveness of health care in reducing inequalities in health. We assessed trends in inequalities in mortality from conditions amenable to health care in seventeen European countries in the period 1980-2010 and used models that included country fixed effects to study the determinants of these trends. Our findings show remarkable declines over the study period in amenable mortality among people with a low level of education. We also found stable absolute inequalities in amenable mortality over time between people with low and high levels of education, but widening relative inequalities. Higher health care expenditure was associated with lower mortality from amenable causes, but not from nonamenable causes. The effect of health care expenditure on amenable mortality was equally strong, in relative terms, among people with low levels of education and those with high levels. As a result, higher health care expenditure was associated with a narrowing of absolute inequalities in amenable mortality. Our findings suggest that in the European context, more generous health care funding provides some protection against inequalities in amenable mortality., (Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.)

Background: Previous studies have reported large socioeconomic inequalities in mortality from conditions amenable to medical intervention, but it is unclear whether these can be attributed to inequalities in access or quality of health care, or to confounding influences such as inequalities in background risk of diseases. We therefore studied whether inequalities in mortality from conditions amenable to medical intervention vary between countries in patterns which differ from those observed for other (non-amenable) causes of death. More specifically, we hypothesized that, as compared to non-amenable causes, inequalities in mortality from amenable causes are more strongly associated with inequalities in health care use and less strongly with inequalities in common risk factors for disease such as smoking., Methods: Cause-specific mortality data for people aged 30-74 years were obtained for 14 countries, and were analysed by calculating age-standardized mortality rates and relative risks comparing a lower with a higher educational group. Survey data on health care use and behavioural risk factors for people aged 30-74 years were obtained for 12 countries, and were analysed by calculating age-and sex-adjusted odds ratios comparing a low with a higher educational group. Patterns of association were explored by calculating correlation coefficients., Results: In most countries and for most amenable causes of death substantial inequalities in mortality were observed, but inequalities in mortality from amenable causes did not vary between countries in patterns that are different from those seen for inequalities in non-amenable mortality. As compared to non-amenable causes, inequalities in mortality from amenable causes are not more strongly associated with inequalities in health care use. Inequalities in mortality from amenable causes are also not less strongly associated with common risk factors such as smoking., Conclusions: We did not find evidence that inequalities in mortality from amenable conditions are related to inequalities in access or quality of health care. Further research is needed to find the causes of socio-economic inequalities in mortality from amenable conditions, and caution should be exercised in interpreting these inequalities as indicating health care deficiencies.

Background: The magnitude of educational inequalities in mortality avoidable by medical care in 16 European populations was compared, and the contribution of inequalities in avoidable mortality to educational inequalities in life expectancy in Europe was determined., Methods: Mortality data were obtained for people aged 30-64 years. For each country, the association between level of education and avoidable mortality was measured with the use of regression-based inequality indexes. Life table analysis was used to calculate the contribution of avoidable causes of death to inequalities in life expectancy between lower and higher educated groups., Results: Educational inequalities in avoidable mortality were present in all countries of Europe and in all types of avoidable causes of death. Especially large educational inequalities were found for infectious diseases and conditions that require acute care in all countries of Europe. Inequalities were larger in Central Eastern European (CEE) and Baltic countries, followed by Northern and Western European countries, and smallest in the Southern European regions. This geographic pattern was present in almost all types of avoidable causes of death. Avoidable mortality contributed between 11 and 24% to the inequalities in Partial Life Expectancy between higher and lower educated groups. Infectious diseases and cardiorespiratory conditions were the main contributors to this difference., Conclusions: Inequalities in avoidable mortality were present in all European countries, but were especially pronounced in CEE and Baltic countries. These educational inequalities point to an important role for healthcare services in reducing inequalities in health.