| Abstract [eng] |
Public Health Inequalities in Lithuania Recent social and economical changes in our society influence the quality of life and lifestyles of people. Due to innovations in science and emergent new technologies, the general quality of life is improving. Also the aspect of health can be singled out as one of the main and probably most important element of quality of life. The improvement of the indicator of state of health may be related not only to advancement of medicine but also to people’s partly changed attitude towards their health. It is emphasized that indicators used to analyze people’s state of health are improving; however, the problem is that the pace of improvement of state of health varies. This is illustrated by the basic indicators of the state of health showing the existing state health inequalities, which are caused by a wide spectrum of various factors. It is also stressed that health inequalities are present not only among countries but also among different social groups in the same country. The aim of this paper is to explore the manifestation of health inequalities in Lithuania. In order to reach the aim the analysis of secondary data was conducted aiming to find out the manifestation of health inequalities and reveal correlation between indicators of state of health and factors influencing health. The research showed that one indicator of state of health was particularly different (both among countries and among different social groups), which is the likely average lifespan. The results show that the indicators of state of health and people’s subjective evaluation of health may depend on various factors, such as sex, place of residence, education and income. The data of the research revealed that people’s health may as often as not depend on the state’s policy and funding and coordination of the sector of health. It was also found that largely factors influencing health are interlaced and the most negative impact is made not by separate factors but by their groups. |
