The first translation of WHO’s “Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) on the region’s status in SDH indexes” has been published by Health Equity Research Center (HERC)

The Health Equity Research Center (HERC) affiliated with the Tehran University of Medical Sciences, is honored to publish the first ever translation of WHO’s “Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) on the region’s status in SDH  indexes.”

This report, titled “Build back fairer, achieving health equity in the Eastern Mediterranean region” consisting of 13 chapters, was published in the March of 2020 during the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office‘s SDH commission meeting. It is a detailed report of the latest available data on Social Determinants of Health (SDHs) through out the Eastern Mediterranean region.

The Commission on Social Determinants of Health (SDH), one of the Eastern Mediterranean Region’s commissions, was established in 2019 with the aim of monitoring and gathering SDH related data from the region. Since its establishment, this commission has gathered data, aided infrastructure improvements, , and proposed methods to improve healthcare systems and outcomes throughout the region.

Due to its divers countries, the Eastern Mediterranean Region is one of the most challenging  WHO regions for data gathering and monitoring. This region, that stretches from Afghanistan in the east to Libya and Morocco from the west, contains countries that are amongst the poorest and richest countries in the world and thus faces various health and SDH related challenges.

Social Determinants of Health (SDH), that’ve become one of the main health related topics around the glob, sometimes have the most or a permanent influence on individual’s health and well-being. These determinants which can be found on both individual -e.g. education, nutrition, physical activity etc. – and higher levels -e.g. housing conditions, air and water quality, ease of access to healthcare facilities, etc. – are usually out side of healthcare interventions’ scope and due to the need for complicated inter-sectional collaborations have become one of the main challenges of improving overall health and well-being of nations.

The present report, which is a collection of available SDH related data of the countries in the region, seeks to report healthcare indexes, compare achievements and goals, and propose flexible and adaptable solutions for all the countries in the region.

The Health Equity Research Center (HERC), as the only one of its kind and the Secretariat of Social Determinants of Health Research Network of I.R. Iran (SDHRN), took it upon itself to translate and publish this document. And now through the efforts of our colleagues and with aid from the Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Institute (affiliated with TUMS) we are presenting you the first official translation of this report. We hope that this publication would become an effective step towards the improvement of health and well-being throughout all the countries of this region.