A Review of Factors Influencing Health Inequalities

Inequity in health is a universal term which is used for showing current differences، variations and inequalities of people in accessing to health services. The current study aimed to assess the factors influencing health inequalities to present the results to the researchers and health care professionals. In this review، several databases including PubMed، Proquest، Scopus، Google Scholar search engine، SID and IranDoc were searched within 2000-2014 period. We found 746 articles and refined them step by step according to the aim of the study by reviewing the titles، abstracts and full texts. Finally، 16 articles were selected for further study In the present study، identified determinants in health inequalities were as follows: 1- Economic and income factors 2- Political factors، social and public policy 3- Cultural and social values 4- social and demographic factors 5- Behavioral، psychological and biological factors. Although، other factors like governmental، international، social cohesion، incidents and even the health system itself were involved in health inequalities، but the listed determinants were among the most important determinants in health inequalities in the conducted studies. Given the importance of people''s health and inequalities in health، the approach should focus on reducing the inequalities in all policies and development programs and the role of these factors should be taken into consideration by managers and policy-makers.