The purpose of this study is to identify inequities in the distribution of socioeconomic determinants of health within Poland and their impact on the health status of Poles, as measured by mortality rate. We hypothesised that (1) there are inequities in the socioeconomic characteristics within geographically defined population groups and (2) some socioeconomic determinants of health have a particularly strong impact on the health status of Poles. Poland is administratively divided into three levels: voivodeships, powiats and gminas. We used a dataset covering all 380 powiats in Poland for the year 2018. We employed a two-stage nested Theil index and Herfindahl–Hirschman Index. In order to identify which of these determinants has the strongest impact on health, we conducted a regression analysis. The study revealed some inequities in the distribution of socioeconomic determinants of health. The mortality rate can be partly understood from variations within voivodeships in the distribution of health determinants. Important national inequalities were found in the case of two determinants, which simultaneously proved their significant impact on Poles’ health in the regression analysis. Thus, type of employment and access to modern infrastructure should be of particular concern for public authorities.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the disparities in the distribution of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) centres in Poland and the impact of eventual inequities on access to the invasive treatment of acute myocardial infarctions (AMI). To examine the distribution of PCI centres against population size and geographic size in Poland, the Gini coefficient calculated based on the Lorenz Curve was engaged. In addition, the regression function was employed to estimate the impact of distribution of PCI centres on access to invasive procedures (coronarographies and primary percutaneous coronary intervention). Data were collected from the public statistical system and Polish National Health Fund database for the year 2018. The relation and the level of equity was measured based on the aggregated data at a district (voivodeship) level. The results of the Gini coefficient analysis show that the distribution of invasive cardiology units measured against population size is more equitable than when measured against geographic size. In addition, the regression analysis shows the moderate size of the positive correlation between number of PCI centres per 100,000 population and the number of all categories of the invasive treatment of AMI per 100,000 population, and the lack of similar correlation in case of the number of PCI centres expressed per 1000 km2, which could be evidence of an insufficiency of PCI centres in areas where the concentration of PCI centres per 100,000 population is lower. The main implication for policy makers that results from this research is the need for a correction of PCI centres distribution per 100,000 inhabitants to ensure better access to invasive procedures.

Equitable access to cardiological rehabilitation services is one of the important elements in the effectiveness of the treatment of cardiovascular diseases as cardiological rehabilitation is an important part of circulatory system disease prevention and treatment. However, in many countries among others, Poland suffers from the underutilization of cardiac rehabilitation services. Cardiovascular diseases are the worldwide number one cause of mortality, morbidity, and disability and are responsible for the substantial increase in health care costs. Thus, the aim of the research was the analysis of geographical accessibility to cardiac rehabilitation services in Poland. Perkal’s method was employed in this research. The conducted research allowed to recognize the regional variation, but also made it possible to classify Polish voivodeships in terms of the level of availability achieved. This enables the identification of voivodeships that provide a good, or even very good, access to cardiology rehabilitation services and those characterized by low, or very low access. It was found that there was a slight regional variability in the access to cardiological rehabilitation services. However, the sufficient development of a rehabilitation infrastructure has been also recognized.

Implementation of health protection requires effective quantitative methods of its evaluation. Assessment could be based on usage of synthetic indices which aggregate couple input variables into a single measure. In this paper, the exploitation of a new synthetic index (by the author called HAI—the Healthcare Aggregated Index) was proposed with the aim of the assessment and long-term interstate comparisons of healthcare systems of the EU countries. Using taxonomic methodology, HAI involves three variables: the number of hospital beds, the number of physicians and the public expenditures on healthcare. HAI utilisation includes dynamic interstate comparisons of national healthcare systems of the different exploitations of human, physical and financial resources. The HAI application to assessment of twenty European Union Member States’ healthcare systems revealed an effect of substitution between healthcare resources within the slight international differentiation of the health protection level and the minor dynamic of changes in time series.