The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded a Veni grant to Kristina Thompson for her project ‘Understanding the causes of widening socio-economic health inequities in the Netherlands: A mixed methods approach’ at Wageningen University & Research. With this grant of up to 320.000 euro she is able to study the determinants of health inequalities in the next four years.
Veni is an individual grant aimed at excellent young researchers who have recently obtained their PhDs. Together with Vidi and Vici, the grant is part of the NWO Talent Program and is awarded annually.
Abstract
Today in the Netherlands, people with higher socio-economic status (SES) live longer, healthier lives than those with lower SES. For instance, people with university degrees live five years longer than those with PO/VMBO/MBO1 educations. Socio-economic differences in health qualify as inequities because they are unfair and systemic. Reducing these inequities is therefore a Dutch public health priority.
However, there is evidence that these efforts have partly failed: by some measures, including mortality, health inequities have widened since the 1950s. The reasons for this remain unclear, because wider health inequities are a “wicked problem,” characterized by complexity, a lack of straightforward solutions, and multiple underlying causes. Identifying these underlying causes is a critical first step in reducing health inequities in the Netherlands.
This project will address this gap, by identifying and testing the causal processes, or mechanisms, contributing to wider socio-economic health inequities in the Netherlands. First, I will build a conceptual model of this phenomenon, based on a literature review and qualitative, participatory input. This process builds on existing scholarly work, and leverages lived experience of practitioners and citizens. The conceptual model will add to the literature, as no overarching framework of the various mechanisms linking socio-economic status and health exists.
Second, I will build a simulation model, using the mechanisms identified in the conceptual model to inform how variables relate to one another. Integrating qualitative data into simulations is a novel approach, and will enhance model realism and applicability. Using simulation will enable me to computationally capture multiple interacting mechanisms and dynamic changes over time. I will test the contributions of these mechanisms to socio-economic health inequities and examine how they have changed over the past 75 years. Doing so will not only tease out why socio-economic inequities have grown, but also identify entry points to reduce them.
