WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ON THIS TOPIC
The specific operationalisations of health inequalities employed by governments are not well understood but have implications for policy action.
WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS
The subnational governments studied predominantly operationalise health inequalities as place-based health gaps. Geographic operationalisations dominate documents despite policy professionals’ broader understandings. The social gradient in health is largely omitted, with interview accounts suggesting multiple rationales.
HOW THIS STUDY MIGHT AFFECT RESEARCH, PRACTICE OR POLICY
Developing shared understandings of dominant operationalisations and the rationale for these could support more productive collaborations across research and policy domains to ensure that policy action is well-directed.
Introduction
Socially patterned differences in health outcomes are subject to much conceptual discussion within research. UK-based researchers have proposed the following definitions of health inequalities:
‘Differences in health that are not only unnecessary and avoidable, but in addition, are considered unfair and unjust’.1
‘The systematic differences (in health) between…