Public health has been defined as “the art and science of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts of society”. Most often, addressing public health problems requires complex strategies and programmes of work, implemented in diverse and sometimes rapidly changing situations around the world. As success is often dependent on people’s individual circumstances and capacity to act in a certain way, or utilise a service that is on offer, there is a risk that some public health interventions can actually increase health inequalities. For example, if people with more time and resource available are more likely to utilise a new service, then its introduction can increase inequalities in health in a way that is avoidable, remediable and considered unjust.

This database uses automated methods to find, organise and describe scientific literature relevant to public health and understanding its findings in relation to inequalities in health. Relevant papers are currently identified from the OpenAlex database, one of the largest open access repositories of academic publications available. Machine learning algorithms are used to automatically organise these documents into topics, identify the research method used and identify whether it contains information about factors related to health inequalities.

Please note: we are currently working on the database, so it will change significantly over the next few weeks and months.