Long-term monitoring of health inequalities: January 2021 report

Background

A Ministerial Task Force on Health Inequalities led by the Minister for Public Health was established in 2007 to identify and prioritise practical actions to reduce the most significant and widening health inequalities in Scotland. The Task Force recognised the need to monitor progress in tackling health inequalities in the longer term as well as managing short and medium term progress.

A technical advisory group was set up in early 2008 to advise the Task Force on long-term monitoring of health inequalities. The group recommended a range of indicators to be monitored over time, as reflected in this report.

The technical advisory group most recently convened in 2019 to review proposed changes to some existing indicators and discuss the inclusion of a new indicator to monitor drug-related hospital admissions. This indicator was presented in the report for the first time in 2020 and is now included annually.