The decade of Roma Inclusion: did it make a difference to health and use of health care services?

OBJECTIVES: We investigated whether the severely disadvantaged health of Hungarian Roma adults living in segregated settlements changed by the Decade of Roma Inclusion program. METHODS: We compared the results of two paired health interview surveys that we carried out using the same methodology before and after the Decade, on the general Hungarian and Roma populations. RESULTS: Self-perceived health status of younger Roma worsened, while it improved among older Roma. Reported experience of discrimination reduced considerably and health care utilization improved in general. Positive changes in smoking and nutrition, and negative changes in alcohol consumption and overweight were observed. Many of observed changes can plausibly be linked to various government policies, including a quadrupling of public works expenditure, banning smoking in public places, restricting marketing of tobacco products, increasing cigarette prices, and a new tax on unhealthy foods. Liberalization of rules on alcohol distillation coincided with worsening alcohol consumption. CONCLUSIONS: We have shown that Roma remain severely disadvantaged and present an innovative sampling method which can be used to monitor changes in groups where identification is a challenge.