Academies: invest in data to reduce health inequalities

New research methods offer opportunities but need infrastructure spending, academy groups say

Policymakers should invest more in data infrastructure so that newer methods of researching health inequalities can reach their full potential to improve people’s lives, European academy groups have recommended.

Health inequalities are defined as differences in health related to people’s socioeconomic circumstances. One such inequality is that the gap in life expectancy between rich and poor people in Europe can be more than a decade, according to a report from the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities and the Federation of European Academies of Medicine, published on 15 November.