The Field of “Public Health” as a Component of Sustainable Development—Poland Compared to the European Union

Abstract

The objective of the article is to analyse selected indicators of sustainable development in the field of “public health”, especially those related to health and health-related inequalities. The article focuses on the analysis of indicators in the field of “public health” presented by Eurostat. These indicators were presented in terms of averages and medians. Moreover, the paper indicates the amount of funds allocated for prevention in health care. In addition, the cluster method was used to identify EU countries similar to each other in terms of the leading indicator of sustainable development (SD). The study was conducted using annual data for 2010–2019 for Poland as compared to other EU countries. The study used data from the Eurostat and OECD databases. In almost all of the analysed countries, in relation to the demographic and health situation, there is a close link between the financial situation, health and inequalities in health-related fields. Patients’ sense of safety has decreased in Poland, which is the result of the growing consumption of health services and emerging problems with the availability of health care services as well as environmental pollution. Among others, the percentage of people with health problems and low income has increased. Although the percentage of unmet needs resulting from income inequalities has decreased over the past year in the analysed groups of countries, it is still high in Poland. The low level of expenditure on prevention makes these difficulties even more severe. In summary, capturing changes in indicators describing public health in the context of its impact on sustainable development plays a key role in balancing out inequalities in the EU countries and in managing a common policy.