Health inequalities: Political problematizations in Denmark and Sweden

Vallgårda, Signild

doi:10.1080/09581590601071705

Cited by 42 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…The material was found through systematic reviews of bibliographies and library catalogues in Denmark and Sweden, searching on keywords such as “health examinations”, “maternal care”, “child care”, “school health care” 4. While the two countries differ in several aspects of public health policy,5 – 7 they are very similar in the field of health examinations of pregnant women and children. The study thus illustrates a field where a common model can be identified.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Widening the scope, targeting interventions, creating risk groups: maternal and child health in Denmark and Sweden from 1930s and onwards

Vallgårda

2008

Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health

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The subject of this article is the health checks for pregnant women and children in Denmark and Sweden introduced in the 1930s and 1940s. It focuses on how political goals and means have changed up until today. The questions addressed are: Which health issues did the politicians and authorities find relevant to deal with? How should they be dealt with? Who were the interventions targeted towards? It is shown that from the 1970s changes gradually took place in two respects. (1) The scope widened inasmuch as increasingly more aspects were to be included in the examinations and guidance. Not only did they come to comprise the physical, social and mental wellbeing of the children but also the life of the entire family, including efforts to improve the parents' social networks and their ability to handle their relationship with each other. (2) Interventions became increasingly targeted towards those categorised as being in need, either for medical reasons or because they were seen as less capable of caring for their children. Thus, this implied that the universal model of welfare provision was partly abandoned. The categorisations necessitated definitions of normality in more aspects and more surveillance in order to assess whether women and children lived up to the criteria of normality. These two changes were probably inter-related since the urge to target and therefore identify risk groups increased when more resources were invested as a consequence of the widening scope of the activities.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Widening the scope, targeting interventions, creating risk groups: maternal and child health in Denmark and Sweden from 1930s and onwards

Vallgårda

2008

Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health

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“…Margaret Whitehead suggests that increased knowledge about inequalities was the reason why the issue entered the political scene [9]. This may have been one reason, but substantial knowledge about social inequalities in health had been available since at least the 1970s in Denmark and Sweden [47] in the form of research, reports and routinely collected data [44]. In the UK, the registrar general had published mortality statistics for different social classes since 1921 [30].…”

Section: Social Inequality-a Political Problem?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Social inequality in health: Dichotomy or gradient?

Vallgårda

2008

Health Policy

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“…An analysis of the understanding of the food consumer among a broad variety of representatives of societal actors in the food sector -producers, manufacturers, retailers, public authorities, scientists, media, and consumer organisations -in four European countries 3 showed that in relation to nutrition and health, all types of actors in Denmark ascribed the main responsibility to individual consumers themselves (Halkier et al 2007, p. 389). Also, in comparison with other Scandinavian countries, Danish preventive lifestyle policies are individualised (Vallga˚rda 2007).…”

Section: Rationalised and Individualised 'Healthier' Foodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Doing ‘healthier’ food in everyday life? A qualitative study of how Pakistani Danes handle nutritional communication

Halkier

Jensen

2011

Critical Public Health

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Denmark has a strong tradition of public health communication, but the majority of these initiatives draw upon the deficit model where the so called target groups are seen as passive recipients that lack resources to change their lifestyle. The article contributes to the critique of the deficit model in public health communication by the way of two steps. First, by arguing in favour of using a contextual theoretical perspective, that includes multiple social conditions and dynamics, a combination of practice theory and intersectionality. Second, by presenting an ideal-typology of ways of doing 'healthier' food among Pakistani Danes, based on a qualitative empirical study of food habits, everyday life and dealings with nutritional communication.

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Health inequalities: Political problematizations in Denmark and Sweden

Cited by 42 publications

References 10 publications

Widening the scope, targeting interventions, creating risk groups: maternal and child health in Denmark and Sweden from 1930s and onwards

Widening the scope, targeting interventions, creating risk groups: maternal and child health in Denmark and Sweden from 1930s and onwards

Social inequality in health: Dichotomy or gradient?

Doing ‘healthier’ food in everyday life? A qualitative study of how Pakistani Danes handle nutritional communication

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