title: Criteria for implementing interventions to reduce health inequalities in primary care settings in European regions.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The current social and political context is generating socio-economic inequalities between and within countries, causing and widening health inequalities. The development and implementation of interventions in primary health care (PHC) settings seem unavoidable. Attempts have been made to draw up adequate criteria to guide and evaluate interventions but none for the specific case of PHC. This methodological article aims to contribute to this field by developing and testing a set of criteria for guiding and evaluating real-life interventions to reduce health inequalities in PHC settings in European regions.
  
  
  METHODS
  A literature review, nominal group technique, survey and evaluation template were used to design and test a set of criteria. The questionnaire was answered by professionals in charge of 46 interventions carried out in 12 European countries, and collected detailed information about each intervention. Third-party experts scored the interventions using the set of evaluation criteria proposed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nine criteria to guide and evaluate interventions were proposed: relevance, appropriateness, applicability, innovation, quality assurance, adequacy of resources, effectiveness in the process, effectiveness in results and mainstreaming. A working definition was drawn up for each one. These criteria were then used to evaluate the interventions identified.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The set of criteria drawn up to guide the design, implementation and evaluation of interventions to reduce health inequalities in PHC will be a useful instrument to be applied to interventions under development for culturally, politically and socio-economically diverse PHC contexts throughout Europe.
authors.affiliation: 1 Escuela Andaluza de Salud Pública, Área de Medioambiente, Salud Laboral y Seguridad Alimentaria, Granada, Spain 2 CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain antonio.daponte.easp@juntadeandalucia.es.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Daponte
authors.affiliation: 2 CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Mariola
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bernal
authors.affiliation: 1 Escuela Andaluza de Salud Pública, Área de Medioambiente, Salud Laboral y Seguridad Alimentaria, Granada, Spain 2 CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bolívar
authors.affiliation: 1 Escuela Andaluza de Salud Pública, Área de Medioambiente, Salud Laboral y Seguridad Alimentaria, Granada, Spain 2 CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Inmaculada
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mateo
authors.affiliation: 3 Université Bordeaux, ISPED, Centre INSERM U897-Epidemiologie-Biostatistique; CHU de Bordeaux, Pôle de Santé Publique, Service d'Information Médicale, F-33000 Bordeaux, France.
authors.forename: Louis-Rachid
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Salmi
authors.affiliation: 4 Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna di Pisa, Istituto di Management, Laboratorio Management e Sanità, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Barsanti
authors.affiliation: 5 Hainaut Santé, Mons, Belgium.
authors.forename: Luc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Berghmans
authors.affiliation: 6 Conseil Régional d'Aquitaine, Bordeaux, France.
authors.forename: Ewelina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Piznal
authors.affiliation: 7 Institut de Recherche et de Documentation en Économie de la Santé, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Yann
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bourgueil
authors.affiliation: 8 Consejería de Salud, Junta de Andalucía, Sevilla, Spain.
authors.forename: Soledad
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Marquez
authors.affiliation: 9 Servicio Andaluz de Salud, Sevilla, Spain.
authors.forename: Ingrid
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: González
authors.affiliation: 8 Consejería de Salud, Junta de Andalucía, Sevilla, Spain.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Carriazo
authors.affiliation: 10 Dekut Debreceni Kutatásfejlesztési, Debrecen, Hungary.
authors.forename: Zsuzsanna
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Maros-Szabo
authors.affiliation: 6 Conseil Régional d'Aquitaine, Bordeaux, France.
authors.forename: Solange
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ménival
mesh_terms: D005060:Europe; D006285:Health Planning; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006302:Health Services Research; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D054625:Healthcare Disparities; D006801:Humans; D011320:Primary Health Care; D012935:Social Justice; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires