Editeb by: David V. McQueen (IUHPE), Matthias Wismar (European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies), Vivian Lin (La Trobe University), Catherine M. Jones (International Union for Health Promotion and Education), Maggie Davies (Health Action Partnership International)

The recent Rio Political Declaration on Social Determinants of Health (WHO, 2011), adopted during the World Conference on Social Determinants of Health in October 2011, continues to highlight the importance of the work of global institutions to address HiAP, social determinants of health and governance. This book, produced by the WHO - Regional Office for Europe on behalf of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, in particular echoes and supports themes of the upcoming WHO health policy for Europe, the European Health 2020 policy framework, underscoring the importance of SDoH, HiAP and intersectoral governance (WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2012). These policy developments set the background for the issues to be addressed in this book.

Written by: Francesco Zambon, Belinda Loring

This policy guidance aims to support national, regional and local policy-makers in Europe to prepare, implement and follow up policy actions and interventions to reduce inequities in unintentional injuries. Unintentional injuries, including road traffic injuries, falls, burns, drownings and poisonings still constitute a major public health problem, killing almost half a million people in the WHO European Region each year and causing many more cases of disability. The burden of unintentional injuries is unevenly distributed in the WHO European Region. Steep social gradients for death and morbidity exist across and within countries. Reducing health inequities is a key strategic objective of Health 2020 – the European policy framework for health and well-being endorsed by the 53 Member States of the WHO European Region in 2012. This guide seeks to assist European policy-makers in contributing to achieving the objectives of Health 2020 in a practical way. It draws on key evidence, including from the WHO Regional Office for Europe’s Review of social determinants and the health divide in the WHO European Region. It sets out options and practical methods to reduce the level and unequal distribution of unintentional injuries in Europe, through approaches that address the social determinants of unintended injuries and the related health, social and economic consequences.

Full title: How a minimum unit price for alcohol was scuppered.

Paper by Ian Gilmore and Mike Daube. Published in BMJ in January 2014.

Authors: University of Stirling, Alcohol Health Alliance UK and British Liver Trust

‘Health First: An evidence-based alcohol strategy for the UK’ sets out for the first time a series of no-nonsense recommendations to tackle the harm caused by excess drinking across the UK. It calls for the UK Government to prioritise Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP), amongst a set of key policies aimed at curbing the nation's drink problem. The strategy was developed by a group of experts independent from government and the alcohol industry under the auspices of the Alcohol Health Alliance.
Although the strategy was developed for the UK, it contains evidence and policy arguments which will be of interest to all researchers, advocates and policymakers across Europe who are seeking to address the harms of alcohol.

The first in a series of papers commissioned by Addiction which attempt to estimate the problems of 'addiction' globally and in different geographical regions.

Such estimates are available, but there is a need to collate and evaluate these to arrive at the best available synthetic figures.