To Örebro University

Background: Health inequalities are an unjust and avoidable problem. Thiss tudy examines subnational geographical inequalities in all-cause years of life lost (YLLs) and the association of socioeconomic factors in pre-coronavirus European Economic Area (EEA) countries.

Methods: In this ecological study complimented with a longitudinal analysis, demographic and socioeconomic data for 1390 small regions and 285 basic regions of 32 EEA countries were extracted from Eurostat. Age-standardised YLL rates per 100,000 population were estimated from 2009 to 2019 based on methods from the Global Burden of Disease Study. Inequalities were assessed using the Gini coefficient (GC) and slope index of inequality (SII). The association between socioeconomic factors by YLLs were assessed using negative binomial mixed models in 2019.

Findings: Over the period 2009-2019, YLLs have decreased in almost all subnational regions. The GC of YLLs across EEA regions was 14% for females (95% CI = 135 to 146%) and 17% for males (CI = 161 to 175%). Greece (GC = 101%, CI = 78 to 25%) and Belgium (GC = 108%, CI = 95 to 120%) had the highest relative inequalities in YLLs for women and men, respectively. Subnational regions with the lowest income (incident rate ratio (IRR) = 139, CI = 123 to 158) and levels of educational attainment (IRRfemales = 119, CI = 113 to 126; IRRmales = 122, CI = 116 to 128), and highest poverty risk (IRR = 118, CI = 112 to 125) were associated with increased YLLs, with stronger associations observed in Central and Eastern Europe.

Interpretation: Differences in YLLs remain within and between EEA countries and are associated with socioeconomic factors. This evidence can assist stakeholders in addressing specific health inequities to improve overall disease burden within the EEA.

Key messages:

• The study highlights the need for public health policies targeted at the subnational level to reduce health inequalities in the EEA.
• The study describes the effect of existing public health policies targeting socioeconomic factors.