Health in all policies – health of the population in development policies in Poland, with particular focus on health inequalities

Introduction Creating an impact on health is a long-term process that involves activities of public policy. In Poland, particular policies are formulated in documents at the central, regional and local levels. The presence of health issues in these documents can be a measure of the involvement of various sectors in health protection, and thus a measure of the implementation of health principle.in all policies. Objectives The aim of the study is to compare the health issues and health inequalities in policy documents. Material and methods Study methodology included an analysis and review of documentation. The review covered official documents of government bodies in which central, regional and local policies, accepted for the implementation in 2007–2013 and 2014–2020, were formulated. Results An analysis of 121 documents formulating development policies provided information about health issues and health inequalities in central, regional and local policies. Health inequality issues was identified in 12 health policy programmes implemented by the Ministry of Health. Conclusions Although health issues and health inequalities are present in all documents formulating public policies, they were given the biggest attention in the documents at the central level. It was observed that the level of health inequality representation in the strategies of provinces was very low, in the strategies of counties, it was marginal. Certain activities aiming at the increase in the awareness of health inequality should be undertaken.