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The impact of financial crisis and austerity policies in Andalusia, Spain: disentangling the mechanisms of social inequalities in health through the perceptions and experiences of experts and the general population

BACKGROUND: Andalusia has been one of the regions most damaged by the economic crisis in Spain. A qualitative study of the effects of the economic crisis and austerity policies in this region has been conducted within the framework of the IMPACT-A project. This research seeks to analyse the perceive...

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Autores principales: Alvarez-Galvez, Javier, Suarez-Lledo, Victor, Martinez-Cousinou, Gloria, Muniategui-Azkona, Eider, Gonzalez-Portillo, Auxiliadora
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6636099/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31311553
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12939-019-1013-3
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author Alvarez-Galvez, Javier
Suarez-Lledo, Victor
Martinez-Cousinou, Gloria
Muniategui-Azkona, Eider
Gonzalez-Portillo, Auxiliadora
author_facet Alvarez-Galvez, Javier
Suarez-Lledo, Victor
Martinez-Cousinou, Gloria
Muniategui-Azkona, Eider
Gonzalez-Portillo, Auxiliadora
author_sort Alvarez-Galvez, Javier
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Andalusia has been one of the regions most damaged by the economic crisis in Spain. A qualitative study of the effects of the economic crisis and austerity policies in this region has been conducted within the framework of the IMPACT-A project. This research seeks to analyse the perceived impact of the crisis upon the health of the Andalusian population through the first-hand discourses of professionals from the health and social sectors on the one hand, and citizens of different socioeconomic status (SES) on the other. METHODS: A total of five focus groups and ten semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed following an inductive process based on Grounded Theory (GT). RESULTS: Our results show a general perception among professionals: the financial crisis has either directly or indirectly affected population health in Andalusia, though mostly impacting low-income individuals who were already at risk of social exclusion. Professionals’ perceptions have been confirmed through the discourses of citizens of a lower SES, which differ from those of middle and upper SES. CONCLUSION: Findings reveal some of the most salient consequences on the socially vulnerable groups and people at risk of social exclusion. In particular, our study highlights the importance of addressing three areas of priority action: mental health, unmet (basic and medical) needs, and decline in the health system.
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spelling pubmed-66360992019-07-25 The impact of financial crisis and austerity policies in Andalusia, Spain: disentangling the mechanisms of social inequalities in health through the perceptions and experiences of experts and the general population Alvarez-Galvez, Javier Suarez-Lledo, Victor Martinez-Cousinou, Gloria Muniategui-Azkona, Eider Gonzalez-Portillo, Auxiliadora Int J Equity Health Research BACKGROUND: Andalusia has been one of the regions most damaged by the economic crisis in Spain. A qualitative study of the effects of the economic crisis and austerity policies in this region has been conducted within the framework of the IMPACT-A project. This research seeks to analyse the perceived impact of the crisis upon the health of the Andalusian population through the first-hand discourses of professionals from the health and social sectors on the one hand, and citizens of different socioeconomic status (SES) on the other. METHODS: A total of five focus groups and ten semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed following an inductive process based on Grounded Theory (GT). RESULTS: Our results show a general perception among professionals: the financial crisis has either directly or indirectly affected population health in Andalusia, though mostly impacting low-income individuals who were already at risk of social exclusion. Professionals’ perceptions have been confirmed through the discourses of citizens of a lower SES, which differ from those of middle and upper SES. CONCLUSION: Findings reveal some of the most salient consequences on the socially vulnerable groups and people at risk of social exclusion. In particular, our study highlights the importance of addressing three areas of priority action: mental health, unmet (basic and medical) needs, and decline in the health system. BioMed Central 2019-07-16 /pmc/articles/PMC6636099/ /pubmed/31311553 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12939-019-1013-3 Text en © The Author(s). 2019 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Alvarez-Galvez, Javier
Suarez-Lledo, Victor
Martinez-Cousinou, Gloria
Muniategui-Azkona, Eider
Gonzalez-Portillo, Auxiliadora
The impact of financial crisis and austerity policies in Andalusia, Spain: disentangling the mechanisms of social inequalities in health through the perceptions and experiences of experts and the general population
title The impact of financial crisis and austerity policies in Andalusia, Spain: disentangling the mechanisms of social inequalities in health through the perceptions and experiences of experts and the general population
title_full The impact of financial crisis and austerity policies in Andalusia, Spain: disentangling the mechanisms of social inequalities in health through the perceptions and experiences of experts and the general population
title_fullStr The impact of financial crisis and austerity policies in Andalusia, Spain: disentangling the mechanisms of social inequalities in health through the perceptions and experiences of experts and the general population
title_full_unstemmed The impact of financial crisis and austerity policies in Andalusia, Spain: disentangling the mechanisms of social inequalities in health through the perceptions and experiences of experts and the general population
title_short The impact of financial crisis and austerity policies in Andalusia, Spain: disentangling the mechanisms of social inequalities in health through the perceptions and experiences of experts and the general population
title_sort impact of financial crisis and austerity policies in andalusia, spain: disentangling the mechanisms of social inequalities in health through the perceptions and experiences of experts and the general population
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6636099/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31311553
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12939-019-1013-3
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