THE EUROPEAN HEALTH DIVIDE AND POLICIES THAT COULD REDUCE IT

A continuously increasing health divide exists in European countries though many of those have similar culture, economy, and other facilities. Thus, this review paper aims to identify “What does the European Health Divide refer to?” as well as to describe this divide with some examples of policies that could reduce it. This paper identified the term European Health Divide as the existing and continuously increasing health gap between and within European countries, especially, between Eastern and Western dimension. The reasons of this health divide include, for example, higher consumption of alcohol, smoking and unhealthy diet; political instability, lack of individual trust, ineffective governmental policies, economic crisis, lower production, unemployment, unequal distribution of resources, money and power; lack of social cohesion and family relation. Policies to improve health and to reduce the health divide within and between countries in Europe as well as globally include improving educational attainment, exercising democracy to improve political stability, universal welfare policy to minimize economic problems, positive perception on governmental policy and trust on individual, taking steps on behavioral factors like, diet, reducing alcohol consumption, for example, applying the Gorbachev Anti-Alcohol Campaign to reduce mortality rate, and lowering smoking level; reforming health care, ensuring equal distribution of money, power and resources among all, improving social determinants such as housing conditions, social networks and family relations; creating social cohesion and mutual responsibility, and finally taking special care for immigrants, low paid workers and the aging population.