Abstract

RAMIREZ MARQUEZ, Abelardo  and  LOPEZ PARDO, Cándido M. About a system of monitoring equity in health care in Cuba. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2005, vol.31, n.2, pp. 0-0. ISSN 1561-3127.

This paper summarizes certain essential aspects of the doctoral thesis entitled" A proposal of a system of monitoring Equity in Health Care in Cuba" submitted by Dr Abelardo Ramírez Márquez, who was First Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Public Health Care, to attain the scientific degree of Doctor of Health Sciences. The objectives of the proposed system are to identify the inequalities in health care - both in the population's health condition and the health determinants - at territorial level and in population groups, taking into account time perspective; to determine existing relations between the population's health condition level and the health determinant level and to assess inequities in health resulting from the identified inequalities. The paper also addresses the prevailing approaches to the equity in health concept; experience in systems of monitoring equity in health in Latin American countries, and it also describes some characteristics of the suggested monitoring system. Among the aspects considered in this work are the justification of the system, its coverage and analysis units; information to be monitored, data collection methods, general and specific objectives of the analysis, users, the system output and the characteristics of the geo-referred information system to be used, without ignoring the eventual system limitations. It is expected that the system discloses realities of the population´s health condition and the determinants that are so far invisible, identifies elements for alert in the health care sector and in other sectors, and brings about results for the decision-taking process at the different national health care levels

Keywords : MONITORING; INEQUALITIES IN HEALTH; EQUITY; CUBA.