Are local services that affect health and wellbeing reaching those people that need them most? A workshop delivered on Mon 5th December at NHS South of Tyne and Wear's offices in Hebburn gave an introduction to "health equity audit", a tool which can be used to consider whether local services are reaching those communities most in need. Download the slides, exercises and workbook used in the workshop below:

Introduction to health equity audit workshop slides

Choosing a priority issue for equity audit exercise

Identifying a measure of need exercise

Equity audit project planning workbook

Follow the link below to download results from a study which looked at how Stop Smoking Services are being accessed in Gateshead, South Tyneside and Sunderland. Are the groups of people who are most likely to smoke using the Stop Smoking Service?
As a result of this, is the service contributing to reducing health inequalities?

NB These are large files that may take some time to download

AreStopSmokingServicesBeingAccessedFairlyInGateshead2009.pdf (pdf, 17MB)

AreStopSmokingServicesBeingAccessedFairlyInSouthTyneside2009.pdf (pdf, 15MB)

AreStopSmokingServicesBeingAccessedFairlyInSunderland2009.pdf (pdf, 16MB)

The Equity Update newsletter for March 2009, vol.3(1), contains the latest news from the Field.

The Cochrane Health Equity Field is part of the Cochrane Collaboration.
The Cochrane Collaboration's purpose is to ensure that relevant, accurate, and current research about health interventions is available worldwide. Cochrane contributors conduct and distribute systematic reviews (available full-text in the Cochrane Library via NHS Evidence national library for health).

The Cochrane Health Equity Field encourages authors of both Campbell and Cochrane reviews to include explicit descriptions of the effect of the interventions not only on the whole population but to describe their effect upon the disadvantaged and/or their ability to reduce socio-economic inequalities in health and to promote their use to the wider community.

For more information on the Field, the Cochrane Collaboration or the Campbell Collaboration, visit the Cochrane Health Equity Field website.