Promoting health by addressing living conditions in Norwegian municipalities

Worldwide, inequalities in health are increasing, even in well-developed welfare states such as Norway, which in 2012, saw a new public health act take effect that enshrined equity in health as national policy and devolved to municipalities’ responsibility to act on the social determinants of health. The act deems governance structures and “Health in All Policies” approaches as important steering mechanisms for local health promotion. The aim of this study is to investigate whether Norway’s municipalities address living conditions – economic circumstances, housing, employment and educational factors – in local health promotion, and what factors are associated with doing so. All Norway’s municipalities (n= 428) were included in this cross-sectional study, and both register and survey data were used and were subjected to descriptive and bi- and multivariate regression analyses. Eighty-two percent of the municipalities reported that they were capable of reducing inequalities in health. Forty percent of the municipalities defined living conditions as a main challenge in their local public health promotion, while 48% cited it as a main health promotion priority. Our study shows that defining living conditions as a main challenge is positively associated with size of municipality, and also its assessment of its own capability in reducing inequalities in health. The latter factor was also associated with actually prioritizing living conditions in health promotion, as was having established cross-sectorial working groups or inter-municipal collaboration related to local health promotion. This study underlines the importance of inter-sectoral collaboration to promote health and well-being.