Introduction:

Inequalities in the health field are caused by the differences in the social and economic conditions, that influence the disease risk and the measures taken to treat the disease.

Objective:

We aimed to estimate the social inequalities in health in Colombia, according to the type of affiliation to the health system as a proxy of socioeconomic status.

Materials and methods:

We conducted a retrospective descriptive analysis calculating incidence rates age and sex adjusted for all mandatory reporting events using the affiliation regime (subsidized and contributory) as a socioeconomic proxy. Estimates were made at departmental level for 2015. Social inequalities were calculated in terms of absolute and relative gaps.

Results:

We found social inequalities in the occurrence of mandatory reporting events in population affiliated to the Colombian subsidized regime (poor population). In this population, 82.31 cases of Plasmodium falciparum malaria per 100,000 affiliates were reported more than those reported in the contributory regime. Regarding the relative gap, belonging to the subsidized regime increased by 31.74 times the risk of dying from malnutrition in children under 5 years of age. Other events such as those related to sexual and reproductive health (maternal mortality, gestational syphilis and congenital syphilis); neglected diseases and communicable diseases related to poverty (leprosy and tuberculosis), also showed profound inequalities.

Conclusion:

In Colombia there are inequalities by regime of affiliation to the health system. Measured socioeconomic status was a predictor of increased morbidity and premature mortality.

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