Gezondheidsachterstand moet wijken

People in lower socio-economic groups are significantly less health than people in higher groups. Lower socio-economic groups are concentrated in deprived neighbourhoods, which therefore seem a good entry point for activities to tackle inequalities in health. The core of the strategy of the city of the Hague to tackle inequalities in health is a big progamme in five deprived neighbourhoods. It is based on two main principles, i.e. building intersectoral partnerships and community participation, and will be tied in the `Major Cities Policy' . We propose to evaluate this health programme in a so-called developmental evaluation study. It will be set up as a descriptive study, including before and after comparison, and control neighbourhoods. The evaluation will focus on process and (intermediate) outcome measures (nature and scope of partnerships, reach of the target group etc.). The data sources to be used include observations, interviews, surveys and secondary data. The results of the proposed study can contribute to the understanding of how the intervention develops over time, as well as of the factors that contribute to the success of this programme. The experiences with the intervention can thus be passed on to other cities that consider similar programmes. In addition, this information gives feedback to the local stakeholders, and allows them to tailor the intervention to the needs of the community, thus in the same time making it more likely to produce an outcome.