title: The potential impact of a social redistribution of specific risk factors on socioeconomic inequalities in mortality: illustration of a method based on population attributable fractions.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Socioeconomic differences in health are a major challenge for public health. However, realistic estimates to what extent they are modifiable are scarce. This problem can be met through the systematic application of the population attributable fraction (PAF) to socioeconomic health inequalities.
  
  
  METHODS
  The authors used cause-specific mortality data by educational level from Belgium, Norway and Czech Republic and data on the prevalence of smoking, alcohol, lack of physical activity and high body mass index from national health surveys. Information on the impact of these risk factors on mortality comes from the epidemiological literature. The authors calculated PAFs to quantify the impact on socioeconomic health inequalities of a social redistribution of risk factors. The authors developed an Excel tool covering a wide range of possible scenarios and the authors compare the results of the PAF approach with a conventional regression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In a scenario where the whole population gets the risk factor prevalence currently seen among the highly educated inequalities in mortality can be reduced substantially. According to the illustrative results, the reduction of inequality for all risk factors combined varies between 26% among Czech men and 94% among Norwegian men. Smoking has the highest impact for both genders, and physical activity has more impact among women.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  After discussing the underlying assumptions of the PAF, the authors concluded that the approach is promising for estimating the extent to which health inequalities can be potentially reduced by interventions on specific risk factors. This reduction is likely to differ substantially between countries, risk factors and genders.
authors: Department of Public Health, Erasmus Medical Center, P.O. Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, the Netherlands. r.hoffmann@erasmusmc.nl
authors: Rasmus
authors: R
authors: Hoffmann
authors: Terje Andreas
authors: TA
authors: Eikemo
authors: Ivana
authors: I
authors: Kulhánová
authors: Espen
authors: E
authors: Dahl
authors: Patrick
authors: P
authors: Deboosere
authors: Dagmar
authors: D
authors: Dzúrová
authors: Herman
authors: H
authors: van Oyen
authors: Jitka
authors: J
authors: Rychtaríková
authors: Bjørn Heine
authors: BH
authors: Strand
authors: Johan P
authors: JP
authors: Mackenbach
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000401:mortality; D001530:Belgium / Q000453:epidemiology; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002423:Cause of Death; D003604:Czechoslovakia / Q000453:epidemiology; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D009043:Motor Activity; D009664:Norway / Q000453:epidemiology; D009765:Obesity / Q000401:mortality; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000401:mortality; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors