Social determinants of health in the Romani population

The aim of our survey study is to describe the current findings in the sphere of social determinants of health among the Romani minority in the Czech Republic. The survey study mainly presents the results of three research projects carried out in the years 2001–2009, focused on the area of subjective and objective perception of the health state of Romani respondents, although we also used data processed by a content analysis of documents obtained by means of a search relating to the topic. The results of the projects described correspond in the following points: the subjective perception of their health state by Romani respondents is quite positive; the most often problematic areas include psychosomatic cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus of type II; the factors of lifestyle, especially smoking, physical inactivity and inappropriate nutrition have a significant influence on the occurrence of these diseases. On the basis of content analysis of available projects we have come to the conclusion that there is quite a big contradiction between subjective and objective evaluation of the health state of the Romani population.