ABSTRACT
There has been a significant increase in research and commentary on inequalities in health in the last two decades (Kennedy et al. 1998; Whitehead 1988; Wilkinson 1996). However, in the main, this has been restricted to the more developed countries. This is partly due to the continuing importance of the burden of disease caused by absolute poverty in developing countries. But research in these countries is also hampered by the lack of good-quality routine data on health status or healthcare disparities between different socioeconomic or ethnic groups. This is often exacerbated by the paucity of historical data, or well-established longitudinal survey data, to compare changes over time. This chapter will state the case for more systematic research and policy attention to be given to differences in health status between different social groups within developing countries. It will then go on to identify some of the approaches researchers in these countries could take in trying to provide evidence to inform policy interventions in light of the information constraints they face.
