Assessment of importance of qualification training courses for public health offices workers and local and national politicians‘ attitude to health inequalities

Aim of the study - to evaluate the importance of qualification development courses for public health offices workers and national and local health politicians attitude to health inequalities. Methods. The research was carried out in January- April of 2017, using the questionnaires. The study involved specialists of Lithuanian public health offices, local and national health politicians, who registered with the trainings „Reducing the inequalities of health and healthcare: situation, challenges and possibilities“. Taken all together, 202 questionnaires were sent before the start of trainings, 185 questionnaires were got back (the response rate was 91.5 percent), and after the training, the same questionnaire distributed to all participants of the training, and from them 145 filled in questionnaires were used for the research( the response rate was 71,8 percent). The data were coded and analyzed with the SPSS (version 23.0) Results. The participants of the trainings assessed the problem of health inequalities on average by 8,97 points, after the trainings 66 participants changed their opinion , and increased the points, stating that health inequalities is an important problem, which must be solved. The participants think, that the most vulnerable group is the unemployed (8,72 points). After the trainings, the opinion of the participants slightly changed and they identified persons with little income as the most vulnerable group (9,19 points). Before the trainings the participants stated that it is very important to observe the health inequalities in the country and in the municipalities, and after the trainings their opinion statistically increased. The participants selected the main sectors in the field of reducing of health inequalities. The inclusion of these sectors, such as health sector (9,59) and social sector, is very important and, after the trainings, the participants‘opinion only increased. Assessing intersectorial cooperation before the trainings the average of the participants‘ assessment was 9,50 points, and, after the trainings 33 participants changed their opinion and increased the average till 9,74, which was statistically important. Conclusions. Statistically important changes of participants‘ assessment/opinion on different issues of observation and reduction of health inequalities and intersectorial cooperation were identified, comparing the answers of the questionnaires before the trainings and after them