ABSTRACT
Socioeconomic inequalities in health have been only scantily documented in most Mediterranean countries; consequently, the issue has not been raised on the public agenda for social, health and research policy until recently. Nevertheless, compared to northern Europe these Mediterranean countries show some peculiarities in socioeconomic inequalities which are interesting to analyse and discuss. In this chapter we will first describe health inequalities in Italy, and then summarize current progress in the field of research and of reporting evidence on this subject. As for policies, the first attempts to address the problem of reducing socioeceonomic inequalities will be illustrated; unfortunately, the effectiveness of such policies has not been evaluated and their impact on health cannot be determined.
