[Public health services and research in Scandinavia]

Public health problems in the Nordic countries are essentially the same as those in other West European countries: increased inequality in health status, despite the favourable improvement in public health as a whole; the health hazards that accompany increasing unemployment; and the difficulty of maintaining reasonable quality and access to care, owing to diminishing resources. In the Nordic countries, however, there is a broad and diversified collaboration in public health facilities and research based, for instance, on epidemiological studies and assisted by access to health-related data bases. The Nordic countries are characterised by many noteworthy examples of organisational models of public health services at the regional and municipal level.