Regional disparities in cause-specific mortality in europe: the role of local context and national health policies
Current socio-epidemiologic theories often perceive mortality (health) inequalities as a given and largely ignore the fundamental questions concerning their origin. Furthermore, the majority of prior studies on international differences in mortality have focused on cross-country differences without taking into account substantial regional variation within national populations. REDIM goes beyond the state of the art through performing a large-scale systematic investigation of the reasons for persisting and emerging spatial disparities in mortality across European countries. The scientific output of the project is crucial for developing and coordinating health policies aimed at reducing geographical inequalities in mortality across and within European countries.

The project intends to quantify the degree of convergence/divergence in cause-specific mortality that occurs between subnational entities in Europe, and to identify determinants of these changes. REDIM focuses on two specific research questions:

1) How does the process of the general mortality decline diffuse across space, and what causes of death contribute most to this diffusion?
2) To what extent do national borders determine health borders?

REDIM will tackle these research questions through analysing cause-specific mortality patterns and trends at NUTS-3 and NUTS-2 levels across 19 European countries. Mortality indicators will be interpreted in conjunction with contextual variables capturing the effects of local context and national health policies.

The proposed research agenda is highly relevant to the context of the integration process within the European Union which strives to enhance coordination of policies to promote more equal access to all benefits and assets in society including health. Apart from expected ground-breaking scientific output, REDIM will provide advanced tools for evaluating the effectiveness of policies within the framework of the European Spatial Development Perspective.