title: [Monitoring social determinants of health].
abstract: Public health surveillance is the systematic and continuous collection, analysis, dissemination and interpretation of health-related data for planning, implementation and evaluation of public health initiatives. Apart from the health system, social determinants of health include the circumstances in which people are born, grow up, live, work and age, and they go a long way to explaining health inequalities. A surveillance system of the social determinants of health requires a comprehensive and social overview of health. This paper analyses the importance of monitoring social determinants of health and health inequalities, and describes some relevant aspects concerning the implementation of surveillance during the data collection, compilation and analysis phases, as well as dissemination of information and evaluation of the surveillance system. It is important to have indicators from sources designed for this purpose, such as continuous records or periodic surveys, explicitly describing its limitations and strengths. The results should be published periodically in a communicative format that both enhances the public's ability to understand the problems that affect them, whilst at the same time empowering the population, with the ultimate goal of guiding health-related initiatives at different levels of intervention.
authors.affiliation: Agencia de Salut Pública de Barcelona, Barcelona, España; Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau, Barcelona, España; CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), España; Departament de Psicobiologia i Metodologia en Ciències de la Salut, Facultat de Psicologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Barcelona), España. Electronic address: aespelt@aspb.cat.
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Espelt
authors.affiliation: Agencia de Salut Pública de Barcelona, Barcelona, España; Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau, Barcelona, España.
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Continente
authors.affiliation: IMIM-Institut Hospital del Mar d'Investigacions Mèdiques, Barcelona, España.
authors.forename: Antonia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Domingo-Salvany
authors.affiliation: Dirección General de Salud Pública, Consejería de Sanidad, Comunidad de Madrid, España.
authors.forename: M Felicitas
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Domínguez-Berjón
authors.affiliation: Grupo de Interacción Gen-Ambiente-Salud (GIIGAS), Universidad de León, León, España.
authors.forename: Tania
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fernández-Villa
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Cirugía, Ciencias Médicas y Sociales, Facultad de Medicina y Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, España.
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Monge
authors.affiliation: Departamento Enfermería Comunitaria, Medicina Preventiva y Salud Pública e Historia de la Ciencia, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Alicante, Alicante, España.
authors.forename: M Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Ruiz-Cantero
authors.affiliation: Agencia de Salut Pública de Barcelona, Barcelona, España; Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau, Barcelona, España; CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), España.
authors.forename: Glòria
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Perez
authors.affiliation: Agencia de Salut Pública de Barcelona, Barcelona, España; Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau, Barcelona, España; CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), España.
authors.forename: Carme
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Borrell
mesh_terms: D003625:Data Collection; D054625:Healthcare Disparities; D006801:Humans; D011634:Public Health; D064890:Social Determinants of Health; D013030:Spain
keywords: Comunicación en salud; Data sources; Determinantes sociales de la salud; Fuentes de información; Geographic information systems; Health communication; Health status indicators; Indicadores del estado de salud; Public health surveillance; Sistemas de información geográfica; Social determinants of health; Vigilancia en salud pública