ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the basic principles underlying effective health service interventions directed at reducing and alleviating health inequalities. Ever since the relationship between poverty and health was recognised, interventions designed to alleviate the worst effects of poverty on the health of children and mothers have been carried out. If the poor are excluded from services either by financial or geographical constraints or services delivered to more affluent areas are better equipped and staffed, such services will continue to perpetuate health inequalities. Equity of service provision must be an essential principle of successful interventions. Poverty, absolute and relative, is the main determinant of child health in developing and developed countries and it receives relatively little medical research attention. The main focus of work on health inequalities remains health-related behaviours. Research programmes with their focus on health inequalities and socio-economic factors in disease causation are essential.
