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Inequality in Health and Health Care: Theoretical and Empirical Considerations

course dates

05 - 07 November 2025

BOOK COURSE

20% DISCOUNT FOR COMBINED ONLINE COURSE BOOKINGS - See our current course offers.

FORMAT

Online. Modules will be delivered live, synchronously using online platforms. Tutors will cover theoretical issues and practical exercises and offer opportunities for questions. 

Access to the online course supporting documents will be provided approximately two weeks before the live sessions.

ACADEMIC COURSE CO-ORDINATORS

Professor Philip Clarke 

OVERVIEW

This short online course covers theoretical concepts of inequity and inequality in health as well as its measurement. It also provides an overview of selected available longitudinal household survey data and cohort studies that combine socio-economic and demographic variables along with various health measures. These datasets provide good sources for empirical inequality in health research. The course combines theory and applied methods using case studies, real-word evidence, and data analysis using Stata.

WHO IS THIS COURSE FOR? 

This course is for researchers and analysts interested in the measurement of socio-economic inequality in health, including, but not limited to, Ph.D. students, post-doctoral researchers and those working in third sector organisations.

 No prior knowledge of economics or inequalities research is assumed.

COURSE CONTENT

The course is divided into three modules- 

Module 1: Inequality in health and the concept of health poverty (Professor Guido Erreygers) 

  • Core concepts such as the measurement of inequality in relative and absolute terms
  • Rank- & level-dependent health inequality measures
  • Measuring health poverty
  • Methods to understand health inequalities (e.g. decomposition methods). 

Module 2: Avoidable/unavoidable health inequality (Assistant Professor Apostolos Davillas) 

  • Theoretical considerations on avoidable/unavoidable health inequality
  • Separating avoidable from unavoidable health inequality – measurement and practical considerations
  • Fairness and avoidable socio-economic inequality in health – advanced topics on measurement
  • Real-world evidence and empirical examples. 

Module 3: Measuring health inequality in practice (Prof Philip Clarke) 

  • Types of inequality comparisons (i.e. cross-section, comparisons across time and over every long periods of time
  • Defining research questions and sources of data
  • Estimating inequalities in practice including issues with the measurement of socio-economic status and health
  • Reporting of health inequality studies. 

The course is taught in English. 

LEARNING OUTCOMES

  • understand key concepts in the measurement of health-inequalities and inequalities in access to care;
  • be able to interpret empirical health economic studies that measure inequalities; 
  • have insights into how to undertake a research project including where to find data and what analyses to undertake;
  • understand how health inequalities are used by policy makers.

For enquiries, please email the HERC Administration team, or complete this online form to be added to a waiting list for future courses.

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