From the editors

Dear Colleagues,

We are very proud to announce that the current issue of the Journal of Health Inequalities marks the fourth year since the founding of our journal. We are grateful to all our editors, translators, reviewers, and of course the authors who have worked hard to help our journal grow in those years. We have managed to achieve a lot in this period. The Journal is listed in an increasing number of bibliographic databases. It is highly ranked in the Index Copernicus, attaining almost 100 IC points, and has recently been awarded ministerial points by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education. We have also been successful in obtaining a grant from the Ministry of Science and Education for the years 2019-2020, which will help us further improve the quality of our publication. Finally, from 2020 we will be moving to an online-first system, whereby articles will be published online as soon as they clear the review process, in advance of the biannual print publication.
The present issue of the Journal is composed of three main sections. First, we present the final group of articles prepared as part of the conference, organised on 9-10 June 2019 in Kalisz, Poland (see the previous issue of the Journal), by the European Observatory of Health Inequalities at the President Stanisław Wojciechowski State University of Applied Sciences in Kalisz and the Health Promotion Foundation in Nadarzyn, Poland, in collaboration with the City of Kalisz and the World Prevention Alliance in Lyon, France, and with the participation of, amongst others, the American Cancer Society, Atlanta, USA, and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway. Witold Zatoński provides the background of the deliberations that took place at the conference by outlining the epidemiology of the health recession that has been taking place in Poland since 2003. In contrast, Cliff Douglas and colleagues present a success case study in both Poland and the United States – that of tobacco control in the last decades – but also indicate that, despite a proliferation of new challenges, conventional cigarette smoking remains a fundamental public health problem. Finally, the Conference Declaration, led by Leif Aarø and prepared in collaboration with international public health researchers, looks at ways in which the persisting health gap between Eastern and Western Europe should be addressed in the immediate future.
The second group of articles pertains to the inauguration of the academic year at the President Stanisław Wojciechowski State University of Applied Sciences in Kalisz, which took place on 4 October 2019. Two renowned public health experts took part in the ceremony and we are pleased to share their contributions with our readers. Otis Brawley’s contribution is devoted to the control of cancers and terminal chronic diseases. Leonardo Chavane takes an insightful look into the social, cultural, and religious factors shaping public health in Mozambique.
The remaining articles offer to our readers some of the recent, cutting-edge interdisciplinary public health research. Two publications tackle the problem of diet and nutrition, one in respect to prostate cancer, and one in connection with obesity in Poland. An ethnographic account explores the health challenges faced by night-shift workers. A historical overview looks at the development of psychotherapy in post-war Soviet Union. In addition, the issue features, amongst others, a review of a new collection of articles on nicotine delivery devices.

Witold A. Zatoński, Andrzej Wojtyła