Health Inequality Literature Survey

Health inequality literature survey 181211
1. Abasolo, I. and A. Tsuchiya, Exploring social welfare functions and violation of

monotonicity: An example from inequalities in health. Journal of Health Economics, 2004.
23(2): p. 313-329.
a) Main question: preferences regarding equality in health, relative to efficiency in health
b) Main contribution: use social welfare function with an alternative specification to capture
violation of monotonicity
c) Main finding: The results (with 973 usable responses) give strong support to the
existence of public preferences which violate the monotonicity principle, and thus to the
usefulness of the alternative specification proposed here.
d) Data: 1999 Spanish health survey
e) Dependent variable: choice of programs with different life expectancy at birth
g) Econometric methods: structural model
i) Other note: structural model, efficiency vs equality
2. Abasolo, I. and A. Tsuchiya, In response to Indranil Dutta, "Health inequality and

non-monotonicity of the health related social welfare function". Journal of Health
Economics, 2007. 26(2): p. 422-425.
i) Other note: refer to Indranil Dutta paper
3. Abásolo, I. and A. Tsuchiya, Understanding preference for egalitarian policies in health:

Are age and sex determinants? Applied Economics, 2008. 40(19): p. 2451-2461.
a) Main question: are age and sex determinants of egalitarian policies in health
b) Main contribution: looking at inequality in health policies
c) Main finding: Younger and older individuals are less likely to target the egalitarian policy
than those in middle age, neither gender, education, household income have significant
impact on targeting
d) Data: Spanish population (n=1209), cross sectional interview of individuals over 18 in
1999
e) Dependent variable: choose egalitarian policy
f) Independent variable: gender, age, education, income, residential area, political affiliation,
marital status
g). Econometric methods: probit
i) Other note: snapshot, inequality in health policy, only partially related to the topic
4. Adda, J., T. Chandola, and M. Marmot, Socio-economic status and health: Causality and
pathways. Journal of Econometrics, 2003. 112(1): p. 57-63.
a) Main question: causal effect of SES to health inequality
b) Main contribution: look at causal effect
c) Main finding: di7erential medical insurance coverage or access to health care across
SES groups maynot be the main reason for such direct causal e7ects of SES on health
d) Data: British Whitehall II study, Swedish Survey of living condition
e) Dependent variable: chronic diseases, BMI, self rated health, smoking
f) Independent variable: SES
g) Econometric methods: regression
h) Measurement of inequality:
i) Other note: SES, pathways, health care coverage
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5. Adler, N.E., et al., Socioeconomic inequalities in health: No easy solution. Journal of the
American Medical Association, 1993. 269(24): p. 3140-3145.
a) Main question: association of SES and disease and mortality
b) Main contribution: mechanisms of SES on health
c) Main finding: Health insurance coverage alone is not likely to reduce significantly SES
differences in health. Attention should be paid both in policy decisions and in clinical
practice to other SES-related factors that may influence patterns of health and disease.
i) Other note: literature
6. Aizer, A. and L. Stroud, Education, Knowledge and the Evolution of Disparities in Health.
National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series, 2010. No. 15840.
a) Main question: relation between education and health disparities
b) Main contribution:
c) Main finding: These results can explain why in an era of great advancements in medical
knowledge, health disparities may actually increase, at least initially.
d) Data: National collaborative perinatal project data on pregnant women who sought care
in one of the 12 urban academic medical canters in 1959 and 1966 US
e) Dependent variable: smoking of mother, measure of newborn health
f) Independent variable: education, 1964 year dummy
g) Econometric methods: OLS regression discontinuity, fe model,
i) Other note: trend, education
7. Alaba, O.A. and S.F. Koch, Dynamic health care decisions and child health in South
Africa. Journal of Income Distribution, 2009. 18(3-4): p. 188-205.
a) Main question: decisions on children health care utilization
c) Main finding: our results suggest that free public health care is not enough to mitigate
health inequality amongst young children and that delayed health care could lead to
adverse household expenditure shocks
d) Data: Would Health Survey South Africa portion, 2002-2003, children
e) Dependent variable: health care utilization
f) Independent variable: child characteristics (gender, insurance cover, illness), household
characteristics (expenditure, size)
g) Econometric methods: mutinomial logit
h) Measurement of inequality: health care utilization
i) Other note: income, health care utilization, snapshot
8. Allison, R.A. and J.E. Foster, Measuring health inequality using qualitative data. Journal
of Health Economics, 2004. 23(3): p. 505-524.
a) Main question: evaluating inequality quantitatively
b) Main contribution: new measure of inequality in health
d) Data: SRHS data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) State Data Files for
1994,
h) Measurement of inequality: a methodology for evaluating inequality when the data are
qualitative rather than quantitative in nature. A partial inequality ordering is defined to
indicate when a distribution is more "spread out" than another; a second partial ordering
(first order dominance) is used to indicate when the overall health level rises.
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i) Other note: measurement, snapshot
9. Anson, O. and S. Sun, Gender and health in rural China: Evidence from HeBei province.
Social Science and Medicine, 2002. 55(6): p. 1039-1054.
a) Main question: gender differences in health inequality in rural China
c) Main finding: gender differences emerged at a later age than generally reported in
Western societies. Among the elderly, the differences between the health and the health
behavior of men and women narrowed, similar to many reports in North America and
Western Europe. Most importantly, no gender differences in mental health were
observed.
d) Data: self collected data from HeBei province China (Sep 1996 - Jun 1999)
e) Dependent variable: health status (self reported chronic conditions, disability, self
reported acute conditions, SF-12, health related behaviour )
f) Independent variable: age, education, household per capita income, gender
g) Econometric methods: ANOVA, OLS
i) Other note: snapshot, gender, education
10. Apouey, B., Measuring health polarization with self-assessed health data. Health
Economics, 2007. 16(9): p. 875-894.
a) Main question: measure of the ordinal distributions such as self assessed health
c) Main finding: This paper proposes an axiomatic foundation for new measures of
polarization that can be applied to ordinal distributions such as self-assessed health
(SAH) data. The new measures of polarization avoid one difficulty that the related
measures for evaluating health inequalities face.
d) Data: British Household Panel Survey 1992-2004
i) Other note: measurement, theory
11. Arber, S., Comparing inequalities in women's and men's health: Britain in the 1990s.
a) Main question: gender differences in health inequality in Britain
c) Main finding: Own occupational class and employment status are the key structural
factors associated with limiting long-standing illness, but educational qualifications are
particularly good predictors of women's self-assessed health. Class inequalities in health
are less pronounced among women who are not in paid work. Women's limiting
long-standing illness relates solely to their own labour market characteristics, whereas
self-assessed health relates to wider aspects of women's everyday lives, including their
household material conditions, and for married women, their partner's occupational class
and employment status. Men's unemployment has adverse consequences for the health
of their wives, which occurs through the mechanism of the family living in disadvantaged
material circumstances
d) Data: British general household survey 1991-1992, adult aged 20-59
e) Dependent variable: self assessed health, limiting long standing illness
f) Independent variable: marital status, education, occupation, employment
g) Econometric methods: logistic regression
i) Other note: snapshot, gender, education
12. Arber, S. and H. Cooper, Gender differences in health in later life: The new paradox?
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a) Main question: gender differences in health
c) Main finding: There is little difference between the sexes in the reporting of self-assessed
health and limiting longstanding illness, but older women are substantially more likely to
experience functional impairment in mobility and personal self-care than men of the same
age. The results reveal a paradox in health reporting among older people; for a given
level of disability, women are less likely to assess their health as being poor than men of
the same age after accounting for structural factors. Older women's much higher level of
functional impairment co-exists with a lack of gender difference in self-assessed health.
d) Data: British general household survey 1992-1994, elderly over 60
e) Dependent variable: self reported health, severe disability,
f) Independent variable: gender, age, marital status, social class, household income,
housing tenure
i) Other note: snapshot, elderly, gender
13. Arber, S. and J. Ginn, Gender and inequalities in health in later life. Social Science and
Medicine, 1993. 36(1): p. 33-46.
a) Main question: gender difference in health inequality
c) Main finding: Elderly women assess their own health less positively than men, and are
seriously disadvantaged compared to men in terms of functional disability.
Class based on the individual's own previous main occupation is strongly
associated with the two measures of health for elderly women and men at all ages. For
elderly women, an 'individualistic' approach, using the woman's own last occupation, is
compared with the 'conventional' approach of measuring class, which for married women
uses their husband's last occupation and for other women their own last occupation.
Using the two approaches makes little difference to the strength of association between
class and health.
Elderly women and men who live in advantaged material circumstances, in terms
of income, car ownership and housing tenure, report significantly better health, after
controlling for age and class. Level of functional disability is influenced by previous
position in the labour market but not current material circumstances. Although elderly
women suffer greater morbidity than elderly men, structural inequalities in health are
equally pronounced for women and men in later life.
d) Data: British general health survey 1985-1987, elderly above 65
e) Dependent variable: self assessed health, functional disability
f) Independent variable: age, social class (more like occupation)
g) Econometric methods: logit
i) Other note: snapshot, gender
14. Arendt, J.N., Does education cause better health? A panel data analysis using school
reforms for identification. Economics of Education Review, 2005. 24(2): p. 149-160.
a) Main question: education's role in health status
b) Main contribution: look at education
c) Main finding: Education is related to all three measures (SRH, BMI, smoking) in the
expected way and the relationships are amplified in magnitude when education is
instrumented
d) Data: Danish National Work Environment Cohort Study 1991, 1995, individual between
18-59
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e) Dependent variable: SRH, BMI, smoking
f) Independent variable: school reform as IV
g) Econometric methods: ordered quantal response panel model
i) Other note: BMI, smoking, education, mechanism
15. Asada, Y. and Y. Ohkusa, Analysis of health-related quality of life (HRQL), its distribution,
and its distribution by income in Japan, 1989 and 1998. Social Science and Medicine,
2004. 59(7): p. 1423-1433.
a) Main question: distribution of quality of life in Japan and its relation to income
b) Main contribution: (1) construction of a measure of HRQL in the CSLC and its application
to health inequality analysis, and (2) inclusion of the dead in health inequality analysis
using a cross-sectional survey.
c) Main finding: between 1989 and 1998 the average HRQL in Japan slightly reduced
(0.005 reduction), its inequality by income slightly reduced (0.002 reduction in the
difference between the top 20% and bottom 20% income share groups), and its inequality
measured by the Gini coefficient slightly increased (0.002 increase). Women's HRQL was
almost always ‘lower than men's, except in earlier ages younger than 10 years old. HRQL
was more unequally distributed among women than men and in older ages. This analysis
shows that the success in the improvement in the length of life in Japan did not always
coincide with the improvement in HRQL and provides a basis for the future population
health research.
d) Data: Japanses comprehensive survey of living conditions, 1989 and 1998, people on
health and welfare
e) Dependent variable: health related quality of life (HALex measure)
h) Measurement of inequality: gini coefficient
i) Other note: snapshot, trend, gini coefficient
16. Backett-Milburn, K., S. Cunningham-Burley, and J. Davis, Contrasting lives, contrasting

views? Understandings of health inequalities from children in differing social
circumstances. Social Science and Medicine, 2003. 57(4): p. 613-623.
a) Main question: children's view on future health inequality
c) Main finding: Children and parents described often starkly contrasting lives and
opportunities, regularly involving material differences. However, children appeared to
locate inequalities as much in relationships and social life as in material concerns; in this
their direct experiences of relationships and unfairness were central to their making
sense of inequality and its impact on health. Although children from both areas
highlighted several different inequalities, including those related to material resources,
they also spoke of the importance of control over their life world; of care and love
particularly from parents; of friendship and acceptance by their peer group. Many children
challenged straightforward causal explanations for future ill-health, privileging some
explanations, such as psychological or lifestyle factors. The accounts of children from
both areas displayed considerable resilience to and downplaying of the effects of both
relationship and material inequalities; also showing how familial and personal challenges,
such as bullying, divorce, learning difficulties, cut across structurally based differences.
d) Data: semi structured interview of children between 9 and 12, and their parents
g) Econometric methods: qualitative study
i) Other note: qualitative study, children, snapshot, intergeneration
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17. Balia, S. and A.M. Jones, Mortality, lifestyle and socio-economic status. Journal of Health
Economics, 2008. 27(1): p. 1-26.
a) Main question: determinants of premature mortality in Great Britain and the contribution
of lifestyle choices to socio-economic inequality in mortality
c) Main finding: The decomposition analysis for predicted mortality shows that, after
allowing for endogeneity, lifestyles contribute strongly to inequality in mortality, reducing
the direct role of socio-economic status. This contradicts the view, which is widely held in
epidemiology, that lifestyles make a relatively minor
contribution to observed socio-economic gradients in health.
d) Data: British Health and Lifestyle Survey (1984–1985) data and the longitudinal follow-up
of May 2003
e) Dependent variable: Gini coefficient of health inequality and decomposition technique,
mortality
f) Independent variable: SES, lifestyle
g) Econometric methods: A behavioural model, which relates premature mortality to a set of
observable and unobservable factors, is considered; A maximum simulated likelihood
(MSL) approach for a multivariate probit (MVP) is used to estimate a recursive system of
equations for mortality, morbidity and lifestyles
i) Other note: mortality, structural model, SES, lifestyle
18. Bartley, M. and I. Plewis, Increasing social mobility: An effective policy to reduce health
inequalities. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A: Statistics in Society, 2007.
170(2): p. 469-481.
a) Main question: the effect of mobility between occupationally defined social classes on
health inequality
b) Main contribution: look at effect of occupation
c) Main finding: social mobility did not increase the extent of health inequality over the time
period that was observed, but rather served to constrain or dilute it.
d) Data: National Statistics Longitudinal Study, UK 1991-2001
e) Dependent variable: 'LLTI' (a broad category which may contain a wide variety of
diseases and conditions of different severity)
f) Independent variable: social mobility, socioeconomic position
g) Econometric methods: Logistic regression models
i) Other note: trend, SES, occupation
19. Becker, G.S., T.J. Philipson, and R.R. Soares, The quantity and quality of life and the
evolution of world inequality. American Economic Review, 2005. 95(1): p. 277-291.
a) Main question: how does inclusion of longevity into an overall assessment of evolution of
cross-country inequality change the conclusion?
b) Main contribution: decomposed changes in life expectancy
c) Main finding: health contributed to reduce significantly welfare inequality across countries;
mortality from infectious, respiratory, and digestive diseases, congenital, perinatal, and
"ill-defined" conditions, mostly concentrated before age 20 and between ages 20 and 50,
is responsible for most of the reduction in life expectancy inequality. At the same time, the
recent effect of AIDS, together with reductions in mortality after age 50—due to nervous
system, senses organs, heart and circulatory diseases—contributed to increase health
inequality across countries.
d) Data: World Health Organization Mortality Database 1960-2000, cross country (both
OECD and other countries)
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e) Dependent variable: life expectancy by age
f) Independent variable: cause of death
g) Econometric methods: survival function
h) Measurement of inequality: life expectancy
i) Other note: only partially related to the topic
20. Bellanger, M.M. and A. Jourdain, Tackling regional health inequalities in France by
resource allocation: A case for complementary instrumental and process-based
approaches? Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, 2004. 3(4): p. 243-250.
a) Main question: evaluate the results of two different approaches underlying the attempts to
reduce health inequalities in France
b) Main contribution: program evaluation
c) Main finding: procedural approach has a greater effect on the reduction of regional
inequalities
d) Data: regional hospital budgets, 1992-2003, France
e) Dependent variable: mortality by suicide and cancer
g) Econometric methods: tabulation and mean difference
h) Measurement of inequality: mortality
i) Other note: health care system inequality, mechanism, only partially related to the topic,
mortality
21. Benzeval, M., J. Taylor, and K. Judge, Evidence on the Relationship between Low
Income and Poor Health: Is the Government Doing Enough? Fiscal Studies, 2000. 21(3):
p. 375-399.
a) Main question: what role does childhood poverty play in shaping educational outcomes
and the acquisition of health capital; how important are educational attainment and health
capital accumulated in childhood for later health; what is the role of recent poverty
experience in determining adult health, after having taken account of accumulated risk
b) Main contribution: establish causal effect
c) Main finding: childhood poverty is strongly related to educational attainment; other
childhood circumstances, in particular parental education and family composition, are
also significant predictors of both education and accumulated health capital; educational
attainment and health capital are strongly associated with adult health outcomes; even
after controlling for this accumulated human capital effect, recent poverty experience is
also a strong predictor of health; in the NCDS, childhood circumstances still demonstrate
a significant association with adult health outcomes
d) Data: National child development study (NCDS) panel, British household panel survey
(BHPS) 1991-1996/97, individual level
e) Dependent variable: self reported general health (binary variable)
f) Independent variable: family composition, individual characteristics
g) Econometric methods: multivariate analysis
h) Measurement of inequality: self reported health
i) Other note: mechanism, income, education, life cycle
22. Bernard, P., et al., Health inequalities and place: A theoretical conception of
neighbourhood. Social Science and Medicine, 2007. 65(9): p. 1839-1852.
a) Main question: area of residence and health status
c) Main finding: In reference to Giddens' structuration theory, we propose that
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neighbourhoods essentially involve the availability of, and access to, health-relevant
resources in a geographically defined area. Taking inspiration from the work of Godbout
on informal reciprocity, we further propose that such availability and access are regulated
according to four different sets of rules: proximity, prices, rights, and informal reciprocity.
Our theoretical framework suggests that these rules give rise to five domains, the
physical, economic, institutional, local sociability, and community organisation domains
which cut across neighbourhood environments through which residents may acquire
resources that shape their life course trajectory in health and social functioning.
i) Other note: location, theory
23. Bhalotra, S. and S.B. Rawlings, Intergenerational persistence in health in developing

countries: The penalty of gender inequality? Journal of Public Economics, 2011. 95(3-4):
p. 286-299.
a) Main question: gender differences in health investment
b) Main contribution: cross-country estimates of the intergenerational persistence in health
and trends
c) Main finding: We find a positive relationship between maternal and child health across
indicators and highlight non-linearities in these relationships. Averaging across the
sample, persistence shows a considerable decline over time. Disaggregation shows that
the decline is only significant in Latin America. Persistence has remained largely constant
in Asia and has risen in Africa.
d) Data: 77 demographic and health survey from 38 developing countries
e) Dependent variable: child health indicators, infant mortality rate, birth weight
f) Independent variable: maternal stature (height, BMI, anemia status)
g) Econometric methods: linear model
i) Other note: snapshot, trend, intergeneration
24. Blaxter, M., Whose fault is it? People's own conceptions of the reasons for health
inequalities. Social Science and Medicine, 1997. 44(6): p. 747-756.
a) Main question: perception of the reason for health inequality
c) Main finding: social inequality in health is not a topic which is very prominent in lay
presentations,
and paradoxically this is especially true among those who are most likely to be exposed to
disadvantaging environments.
d) Data: 1986/87, 1990-91 British Health and lifestyle survey
i) Other note: qualitative, snapshot, mechanism
25. Bleichrodt, H. and E. van Doorslaer, A welfare economics foundation for health inequality
measurement. Journal of Health Economics, 2006. 25(5): p. 945-957.
a) Main question: measurement of health inequalities
c) Main finding: Our results indicate that these measures (gini coefficient, concentration
index) require assumptions that appear restrictive.
i) Other note: theory, gini, concentration index, measurement
26. Bolam, B., S. Murphy, and K. Gleeson, Individualisation and inequalities in health: A
qualitative study of class identity and health. Social Science and Medicine, 2004. 59(7): p.
1355-1365.
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a) Main question: the relation between class identity and health inequality
c) Main finding: In sum, resistance to class was associated with talk about individual, private
experience whereas the acceptance of class was linked to discussion of health as a wider
social or political phenomenon. This evidence lends qualified support to the
individualisation thesis: inequalities in health existing on structural or material levels are
not simply reproduced, and indeed in some contexts may even juxtapose, accounts of
social identity in interview and focus group contexts. Class identity and health are
negotiated in lay talk as participants shift argumentatively back and forth between
competing positions, and public and private realms, in the attempt to make sense of
health and illness. The promotion of greater awareness and interest in health inequalities
within wider public discourse may well help support attempts to tackle these injustices.
d) Data: interviews in Southern English city
) Other note: qualitative, only partly relevant
27. Bommier, A. and G. Stecklov, Defining health inequality: Why Rawls succeeds where
social welfare theory fails. Journal of Health Economics, 2002. 21(3): p. 497-513.
a) Main question: measure of health inequality
c) Main finding: We propose an alternative approach, in its simplest form, is shown to be
closely related to the concentration curve when health and income are positively related.
We explore the properties of these approaches by developing policy scenarios and
examining how various ethical criteria affect government strategies for targeting health
interventions.
i) Other note: measurement, theory
28. Booth, A.L. and N. Carroll, Economic status and the Indigenous/non-Indigenous health
gap. Economics Letters, 2008. 99(3): p. 604-606.
a) Main question: health difference between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians
b) Main contribution: look at indigenous population
c) Main finding: Indigenous Australians have significantly worse health and almost half of
the Indigenous health gap is explained by differences in economic variables
d) Data: National health survey 2001, individual
e) Dependent variable: self assessed health
f) Independent variable: demographic, economic variables, indigenous status
g) Econometric methods: ordered logit model
h) Measurement of inequality: self assessed health
i) Other note: snapshot, ethnic inequality
29. Bourne, P.A., Health inequality in Jamaica, 1988-2007. Australian Journal of Basic and
Applied Sciences, 2009. 3(3): p. 3040-3052.
a) Main question: why is there a difference in health and health behaviour between men and
women
b) Main contribution: looks at various health measures
c) Main finding: health care seeking behaviour is gender bias, men's behaviour can largely
be explained by ill health
d) Data: Jamaica survey of living conditions on medical care seeking behaviour, self
reported illness 1998-2007, aggregated level data
e) Dependent variable: medical care seeking behaviour
f) Independent variable: self reported illness, poverty, gender
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g) Econometric methods: tabulation
i) Other note: gender, trend, mechanism, health care seeking behaviour
30. Braveman, P. and E. Tarimo, Social inequalities in health within countries: Not only an
issue for affluent nations. Social Science and Medicine, 2002. 54(11): p. 1621-1635.
a) Main question: income and health inequality within and between countries
c) Main finding: explicit concerns about equity in health and its determinants need to be
placed higher on the policy and research agendas of both international and national
organizations in low-, middle-, and high-income countries. equity needs to move from
being largely implicit to becoming an
explicit component of the strategy, and progress toward greater equity must be carefully
monitored in countries of all per capita income levels. Particularly in the context of an
increasingly globalized world, improvements in health for privileged groups should
suggest what could, with political will, be possible for all
i) Other note: qualitative, only partially relevant to the topic
31. Campbell, C. and C. McLean, Ethnic identities, social capital and health inequalities:
Factors shaping African-Caribbean participation in local community networks in the UK.
a) Main question: ethnicity and health inequality using participation in local community
networks as a channel to reduce inequality
c) Main finding:
d) Data: semi structured, open ended interviews with 25 African Caribbean residents of a
deprived multi ethnic area of a south England town
e) Dependent variable: Our findings highlight the limitations of policies which simply call for
increased
community participation by socially excluded groups, in the absence of specific measures to
address the obstacles that stand in the way of such participation.
i) Other note: qualitative, ethnic group, only partially relevant to the topic
32. Cardano, M., G. Costa, and M. Demaria, Social mobility and health in the Turin
longitudinal study. Social Science and Medicine, 2004. 58(8): p. 1563-1574.
a) Main question: (a) to what extent does health status influence the chances of
intra-generational mobility of individuals? (b) what is the impact on health inequalities of
the various kinds of social mobility (both mobility in the labour market and exit from
employment)—do they increase or reduce inequalities? (c) to what extent does
health-related intra-generational social mobility contribute to the production of health
inequalities?
c) Main finding: The study found a weak relationship between health status and
occupational mobility chances. The relationship between occupational mobility and
health takes two different forms. Occupational mobility in the labour market decreases
health inequalities; occupational mobility out of the labour market (early retirement,
unemployment, housewife return) widens them. The maximum contribution health-related
intra-generational social mobility can make towards health inequalities was estimated at
about 13% for men.
d) Data: Turin Longitudinal Study, 1981-1991, adult 25-49, Italy
e) Dependent variable: social mobility (movement in the scale of social desirability of
occupations)
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f) Independent variable: hospital admission
i) Other note: snapshot, pathways, reversed relation
33. Chandola, T., et al., Health selection in the Whitehall II study, UK. Social Science and
Medicine, 2003. 56(10): p. 2059-2072.
a) Main question: how is health inequality influence employment grade
c) Main finding: There was no evidence for an effect of mental (GHQ-30 and SF36) or
physical health (SF-36) on changes in employment grade. When financial deprivation
was used as a measure of social position, there was a significant effect of mental health
on changes in social position among men although this health selection effect was over
two and a half times smaller than the effect of social position on changes in health.
d) Data: Whitehall II study, 1,3, 4, and 5 phase, civil servants aged 35-55
e) Dependent variable: employment grade
f) Independent variable: SF-36, mental health
g) Econometric methods: cross lagged panel model
i) Other note: reversed relation, mechanism, pathways
34. Chandola, T., et al., Pathways between education and health: A causal modelling
approach. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A: Statistics in Society, 2006.
169(2): p. 337-359.
a) Main question: pathways of effect of education to health
b) Main contribution: look at causal effect
c) Main finding: The association between education and health appears to be explained by
a combination of mechanisms: adolescent health and adult health behaviours for men
and women, adult social class among men and parental social class among women
d) Data: National Child Development Study (NCDS) UK
e) Dependent variable: adult health (self reported health, illness, admission to hospital)
f) Independent variable: adolescent health, sense of control healthy behaviours, education
and cognitive ability
i) Other note: pathway, education, structural model
35. Chang, V.W., Racial residential segregation and weight status among US adults. Social
Science and Medicine, 2006. 63(5): p. 1289-1303.
a) Main question: relation of ethnicity segmentation and weight
c) Main finding: Results show that among non-Hispanic blacks, higher racial isolation is
positively associated with both a higher body mass index (BMI) and greater odds of being
overweight, adjusting for multiple covariates, including measures of individual
socioeconomic status. Among whites, there is no significant association between the
isolation index and weight status.
d) Data: 2000 behavioral risk factor surveillance system
e) Dependent variable: BMI
f) Independent variable: isolation index
g) Econometric methods: hierarchical linear regression
i) Other note: snapshot, BMI, location
36. Chen, Z., D.B. Eastwood, and S.T. Yen, A decade's story of childhood malnutrition
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inequality in China: Where you live does matter. China Economic Review, 2007. 18(2): p.
139-154.
a) Main question: inequality in childhood malnutritions
b) Main contribution: focus on childhood
c) Main finding: per capita household income, household head's education, urban residence
and access to a bus stop are associated with lower malnutrition. Child's age has a
nonlinear relationship with the malnutrition status. Income growth and access to public
transportation are associated with less severe inequality, while rural-urban gap, provincial
differentials, and unequal distribution of household head's education are associated with
higher levels of inequality in childhood malnutrition. Gender is not relevant for either
malnutrition status or inequality. Investments in infrastructure and welfare programs are
recommended to ameliorate the inequality in childhood malnutrition
d) Data: CHNS China 1991, 1993, 1997, 2000, children under 10
e) Dependent variable: inequality in childhood malnutrition
f) Independent variable: per capita household income, child's age, household head's
education, gender, rural area, transportation access, province
h) Measurement of inequality: concentration index
i) Other note: snapshot, income, trend, nutrition, concentration index
37. Cheng, Y.H., et al., Self-rated economic condition and the health of elderly persons in
Hong Kong. Social Science and Medicine, 2002. 55(8): p. 1415-1424.
a) Main question: relation between economic condition and health among elderly
b) Main contribution: This is the first paper to examine the relation between self-rated
economic condition (measured with a single item question) and reported health
conditions (i.e., somatic complaints, diagnosed physical diseases, functional health
(Activities of Daily Living), self-rated health, and mental health status (General Health
Questionnaire-30 [GHQ-30]) among elderly persons in Hong Kong.
c) Main finding: The study found that although it did not record the actual income levels of
the respondents, the subjective measure vividly demonstrated the health differentials
among the elderly respondents. self-rated economic condition was a significant predictor
of the number of somatic complaints and physical illnesses reported, as well as of
functional health, self-rated health, and mental health status (controlling for
socio-demographic variables). However, the measure explained a higher proportion of
variance in models related to psychological health than those related to physical health.
d) Data: 65 and older residents in public housing estats in the southern district of Hong
Kong Island, 1995 survey
e) Dependent variable: somatic complaints, physical illness, functional health, self rated
health, mental health
f) Independent variable: income, age, gender, marital status, education, living arrangement
g) Econometric methods: multiple regression analyses
i) Other note: income, snapshot, ADL
38. Chun, H., et al., Explaining gender differences in ill-health in South Korea: The roles of
socio-structural, psychosocial, and behavioral factors. Social Science and Medicine,
2008. 67(6): p. 988-1001.
a) Main question: the gender disparity in health
c) Main finding: Results showed a substantial female excess in ill-health in both measures,
revealing an increasing disparity in the older age group.
d) Data: 2001 Korean national Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, aged 25-64
12
e) Dependent variable: self rated health, chronic disease
f) Independent variable: socio structural, psychosocial, and behavioral variable, gender
i) Other note: snapshot, gender
39. Clarke, P.M., U.G. Gerdtham, and L.B. Connelly, A note on the decomposition of the
health concentration index. Health Economics, 2003. 12(6): p. 511-516.
a) Main question: measure of health inequality using concentration index
c) Main finding: The purpose of this note is to illustrate two different methods for
decomposing the overall health concentration index: 'by component' (physical functioning
scale of SF36), 'by subgroup'. (employment) These methods provide insights into the
nature of inequality that can be used to inform policy design to reduce income related
health inequalities.
d) Data: general health survey 1995, Australia
i) Other note: concentration index, measurement, decomposition
40. Clarke, P.M., et al., On the measurement of relative and absolute income-related health
inequality. Social Science and Medicine, 2002. 55(11): p. 1923-1928.
a) Main question: income related health inequality under different health measures
d) Data: 1995 National health survey Australia, population survey conducted in Uppsala
county Sweden
d) Data: SF-36
h) Measurement of inequality: generalized concentration index
i) Other note: measurement, concentration index, theory
41. Clarke, P.M. and C. Ryan, Self-reported health: Reliability and consequences for health
inequality measurement. Health Economics, 2006. 15(6): p. 645-652.
a) Main question: consistency of self reported health asked twice in the same survey
c) Main finding: We therefore conclude that the most likely explanation is a mode of
administration effect that makes people less likely to choose the extreme categories in a
self completion questionnaire, but not a personal interview. However, this effect has a
relatively minor impact on measures of inequality. This is due to a large proportion of the
movement (i.e. movement to the middle) not being related to income and hence does not
systematically impact on the cumulative distribution of health across this measure of
socio-economic status.
d) Data:1995 NHS, 2001 HILDA, Australia
e) Dependent variable: self reported health
i) Other note: measurement, concentration index
42. Coburn, D., Income inequality, social cohesion and the health status of populations: The
role of neo-liberalism. Social Science and Medicine, 2000. 51(1): p. 135-146.
a) Main question: relationship between income inequality and health
c) Main finding: More attention should be paid to understanding the causes of income
inequalities and not just to its effects because income inequalities are neither necessary
nor inevitable. Moreover, understanding the contextual causes of inequality may also
influence our notion of the causal pathways involved in inequality-health status
13
relationships (and vice versa).
i) Other note: qualitative, pathways, mechanism, income
43. Coburn, D., Beyond the income inequality hypothesis: Class, neo-liberalism, and health
inequalities. Social Science and Medicine, 2004. 58(1): p. 41-56.
a) Main question: relation between income and health inequality
c) Main finding: neo-liberalism is associated with greater poverty and income inequalities,
and greater health inequalities within nations. Furthermore, countries with Social
Democratic forms of welfare regimes (i.e., those that are less neo-liberal) have better
health than do those that are more neo-liberal.
h) Measurement of inequality: gini index
i) Other note: qualitative, pathways, mechanism, income
44. Connolly, S. and D. O'Reilly, The contribution of migration to changes in the distribution of
health over time: Five-year follow-up study in Northern Ireland. Social Science and
Medicine, 2007. 65(5): p. 1004-1011.
a) Main question: contribution of migration to increased inequality in health
b) Main contribution: account for selection in migration decisions
c) Main finding: Evidence of selective migration was found in the study, with migrants often
having significantly different levels of health to non-migrants. However, overall migration
within this cohort did not substantially alter the distribution of health through time, partly
because the migrants out of the deprived and affluent areas were replaced by in-migrants
with similar levels of health.
d) Data: general practice project Northern Ireland, 2000, registered patients in 40 practices
e) Dependent variable: medical conditions
f) Independent variable: migration, age, gender, quintile of deprivation
i) Other note: snapshot, migration, mechanism, pathways
45. Connolly, S., D. O'Reilly, and M. Rosato, Increasing inequalities in health: Is it an artefact
caused by the selective movement of people? Social Science and Medicine, 2007. 64(10):
p. 2008-2015.
a) Main question: relation between income and health inequality
b) Main contribution: account for selection in migration
c) Main finding: Selective migration was found to make an important contribution in
explaining increases in inequalities between areas, accounting for about 50% of the
increase for those aged less than 75. At the older age groups, however, selective
migration was responsible for a narrowing of mortality differentials over time.
d) Data: ONS longitudinal study for England and Wales, 1991 and 2001
e) Dependent variable: mortality
f) Independent variable: age, gender, ethnic group, marital status, tenure, location,
deprivation
i) Other note: trend, mechanism, pathways, migration, income
46. Cooper, H., Investigating socio-economic explanations for gender and ethnic inequalities
in health. Social Science and Medicine, 2002. 54(5): p. 693-706.
14
a) Main question: relation between ethnic group and health inequality
c) Main finding: The results show substantially poorer health among all minority ethnic
groups compared to whites of working-age. The absence of gender inequality in health
among white adults contrasts with higher morbidity for many minority ethnic women
compared to men in the same ethnic group. The analysis addresses whether
socio-economic inequality is a potential explanation for this pattern of health inequality
using measures of educational level, employment status, occupational social class and
material deprivation. There are marked socio-economic differences according to gender
and ethnic group; high morbidity is concentrated among adults who are most
socio-economically disadvantaged, notably Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. Logistic
regression analyses show that socio-economic inequality can account for a sizeable
proportion of the health disadvantage experienced by minority ethnic men and women,
but gender inequality in minority ethnic health remains after adjusting for socio-economic
characteristics.
d) Data: Health survey for England, 1993-1996
f) Independent variable: gender, social class (occupation), employment, education, material
deprivation, ethnic group
i) Other note: snapshot, ethnic group, gender
47. Costa, J. and J. Garcia, Measuring socioeconomic health inequalities: Fiction or reality?
International Journal of Social Economics, 2003. 30(7-8): p. 883-892.
a) Main question: the relation between income, health inequality
c) Main finding: inequalities are sensitive to the health status, variable and social position
variable employed. It was found that significant health related social class inequalities
were insignificant when income was employed as a reference variable
d) Data: 1994 Catalan Health service survey, individual
i) Other note: income, social class, concentration index
48. Currie, C., et al., Researching health inequalities in adolescents: The development of the
Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) Family Affluence Scale. Social
a) Main question: SES in equality in adolescent health
d) Data: the health behaviour in school aged children
f) Independent variable: family affluence scale
i) Other note: literature, measurement, SES
49. Currie, J., Inequality at Birth: Some Causes and Consequences. National Bureau of
Economic Research Working Paper Series, 2011. No. 16798.
a) Main question: effect of environmental pollution exposure on health at birth
c) Main finding: I provide new evidence on this question, showing that children born to less
educated and minority mothers are more likely to be exposed to pollution in utero and that
white, college educated mothers are particularly responsive to changes in environmental
amenities.
d) Data: individual level of births information in five large states in US between 1989 and
15
2003
e) Dependent variable: low birth weight, premature birth
f) Independent variable: ethnicity, education
g) Econometric methods: DDD
i) Other note: mechanism, education, ethnic inequality
50. Curtis, S., et al., Area effects on health variation over the life-course: Analysis of the
longitudinal study sample in England using new data on area of residence in childhood.
a) Main question: residence and health inequality
c) Main finding: The results suggest that conditions in residential area in early life may help
to explain relatively poor health experience of populations in some parts of Britain today.
d) Data: National statistics longitudinal study for England and Wales, individuals aged 0-16
in 1939
e) Dependent variable: death between 1981-1991, long term illness in 1991
f) Independent variable: residence, socioeconomic condition in 1930s
i) Other note: snapshot, intergeneration, mechanism, pathways, SES, location
51. Cutler, D.M. and A. Lleras-Muney, Education and Health: Evaluating Theories and
Evidence. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series, 2006. No.
12352.
a) Main question: association between education and health
c) Main finding: The education "gradient" is found for both health behaviors and health
status, though the
former does not fully explain the latter. The effect of education increases with increasing years of
education, with no evidence of a sheepskin effect. Nor are there differences between
blacks and whites, or men and women. Gradients in behavior are biggest at young ages,
and decline after age 50 or 60.
d) Data: National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) in the United States, 25 and over group
e) Dependent variable: health, health behaviour
f) Independent variable: education
g) Econometric methods: ols
i) Other note: education, snapshot
52. Cutler, D.M., A. Lleras-Muney, and T. Vogl, Socioeconomic Status and Health:
Dimensions and Mechanisms. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper
Series, 2008. No. 14333.
a) Main question: SES (education, financial resources, rank, race) and health
c) Main finding: The extent to which socioeconomic advantage causes good health varies,
both across these four dimensions and across the phases of the lifecycle. Circumstances
in early life play a crucial role in determining the co-evolution of socioeconomic status and
health throughout adulthood. In adulthood, a considerable part of the association runs
from health to socioeconomic status, at least in the case of wealth. The diversity of
pathways casts doubt upon theories that treat socioeconomic status as a unified concept.
d) Data: NHIS US, 1990, ages 25-64
16
53. Davidson, R., J. Kitzinger, and K. Hunt, The wealthy get healthy, the poor get poorly? Lay
perceptions of health inequalities. Social Science and Medicine, 2006. 62(9): p.
2171-2182.
a) Main question: exploring how people see inequality, how they theorise its impact on
health, and the extent to which they make personal and social comparisons,
c) Main finding: Contrary to other research which suggests that people from more deprived
backgrounds are more reluctant to acknowledge the effects of socio-economic
deprivation, our findings demonstrate that, in some contexts at least, people from less
favourable circumstances converse in a way to suggest that inequalities deeply affect
their health and well-being.
i) Other note: qualitative, mechanism, pathways
54. Deaton, A., Health, Inequality, and Economic Development. Journal of Economic
Literature, 2003. 41(1): p. 113.
a) Main question: relation between income and health
b) Main contribution: cross country analysis, theoretical and empirical analysis
c) Main finding: income's influence to health inequality is through other pathways
55. Deaton, A., Global Patterns of Income and Health: Facts, Interpretations, and Policies.
a) Main question: association of income and health inequality
c) Main finding: there is no evidence that it will deliver automatic health improvements in the
absence of appropriate conditions; the correlation is between the level of infant mortality
and the growth of real incomes, most likely reflecting the importance of factors such as
education and the quality of institutions that affect both health and growth.
i) Other note: trend, income, cross country
56. Decker, S.L. and D.K. Remler, How Much Might Universal Health Insurance Reduce
Socioeconomic Disparities in Health? A Comparison of the US and Canada. National
Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series, 2004. No. 10715.
a) Main question: association of SES and health
c) Main finding: Our results are therefore consistent with the availability of universal health
insurance in the U.S, or at least some other difference that occurs around the age of 65 in
one country but not the other, narrowing SES differences in health between the US and
Canada.
d) Data: National Health Interview Survey US 55-74 in 1997/98, National Population Health
Survey Canada individual adult 1996/97
f) Independent variable: income, age dummy
g) Econometric methods: linear probability model
i) Other note: cross country, income, snapshot
57. Demakakos, P., et al., Socioeconomic status and health: The role of subjective social
status. Social Science and Medicine, 2008. 67(2): p. 330-340.
17
a) Main question: the link between Subjective Social Status and health in old age and
investigated
whether SSS mediated the associations between objective indicators of socioeconomic
status and health.
c) Main finding: In age-adjusted analyses SSS was related positively to almost all health
outcomes. Many of these relationships remained significant after adjustment for
covariates.
d) Data: cross-sectional data from the second wave (2004–2005) of the English
Longitudinal Study of Ageing, elderly 52 and older
e) Dependent variable: self-rated health, long-standing illness, depression, hypertension,
diabetes, central obesity, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol,
triglycerides, fibrinogen, and C-reactive protein.
f) Independent variable: Subjective social status measured using a scale representing a
10-rung ladder, Wealth, education, and occupation, age and marital status, gender
g) Econometric methods: logit and OLS
i) Other note: snapshot, SES
58. Denton, M., S. Prus, and V. Walters, Gender differences in health: A Canadian study of
the psychosocial, structural and behavioural determinants of health. Social Science and
Medicine, 2004. 58(12): p. 2585-2600.
a) Main question: the extent to which gender based health inequalities reflect the different
social experiences and conditions of men's and women's lives.
c) Main finding: Social structural and psychosocial determinants of health are generally
more important for women and behavioural determinants are generally more important
for men. Gender differences in exposure to these forces contribute to inequalities in
health between men and women, however, statistically significant inequalities remain
after controlling for exposure. Gender-based health inequalities are further explained by
differential vulnerabilities to social forces between men and women.
d) Data: Canadian National Population Health Survey, 1994-1995, 12 years older
e) Dependent variable: self-rated health, functional health, chronic illness and distress
f) Independent variable: gender, social structural and psychosocial variables
g) Econometric methods: multiple classification analysis
i) Other note: snapshot, pathways, mechanism, gender
59. Denton, M. and V. Walters, Gender differences in structural and behavioral determinants
of health: An analysis of the social production of health. Social Science and Medicine,
1999. 48(9): p. 1221-1235.
a) Main question: What is the relative importance of the social, structural and behavioral
determinants of health? And, are there gender differences in the determinants of health?
c) Main finding: Findings indicate that the structures of social inequality are the most
important determinants of health acting both independently and through their influence on
the behavioral determinants of health. There are very real differences in the factors that
predict women's and men's health. For women, social structural factors appear to play a
more important role in determining health. Being in the highest income category, working
full-time and caring for a family and having social support are more important predictors
of good health for women than men. Smoking and alcohol consumption are more
important determinants of health status for men than women, while body weight and
being physically inactive are more important for women than men.
d) Data: 1994 Canadian National Population Health Survey
18
e) Dependent variable: subjective health status and the Health Utilities Index
f) Independent variable: structural determinants (age, family structure, main activity,
education, occupation, income and social support), behavioral determinants (lifestyle
factors related to smoking, drinking, weight and physical activity)
g) Econometric methods: multiple least-squared regression
i) Other note: snapshot, education, income, gender
60. Diaz, M.D.M., Socio-economic health inequalities in Brazil: Gender and age effects.
Health Economics, 2002. 11(2): p. 141-154.
a) Main question: SES inequalities in health
c) Main finding: In summary, as far as gender distinction is concerned, the results showed
that up to 5 years of age the mortality rates, reported appearance of chronic health
problems as well as the self-assessed health indicated that the boys were in worse health
condition than the girls. After this age group there was a tendency for differences to
disappear until adulthood, when the situation changed and the women consistently
considered themselves less healthy. With reference to the socio-economic inequalities,
one generally finds larger differences within the women's groups. The analysis for the
different age groups indicated that the pro-rich inequalities increased with age. Both
results were clearly proved, especially for the health expectancy variable, by adopting an
adjustment of the dominance concept derived from literature on economic inequalities,
consisting of comparing concentration curves.
d) Data: 1996/1997 Living Standard Measurement Study (LSMS), Brazil
e) Dependent variable: health expectancy, self-assessed health status, chronic health
problems
f) Independent variable: age, gender, income
i) Other note: concentration index, SES, income, gender, snapshot
61. Doyal, L., Gender equity in health: Debates and dilemmas. Social Science and Medicine,
2000. 51(6): p. 931-939.
a) Main question: the impact of gender divisions on the health and the health care by gender
c) Main finding: a three point agenda for change: policies to ensure universal access to
reproductive health care, to reduce gender inequalities in access to resources and to
relax the constraints of rigidly defined gender roles.
i) Other note: qualitative, partially relevant to the topic, gender
62. Dunn, J.R. and M.V. Hayes, Social inequality, population health, and housing: A study of
two Vancouver neighborhoods. Social Science and Medicine, 2000. 51(4): p. 563-587.
a) Main question: mechanisms through which social relations might shape the health status
of individuals and populations
b) Main contribution: the influence of inequalities generated by housing and housing
markets on the differential distribution of health status
c) Main finding: in concert with commonly used measures of socioeconomic status, both
material and meaningful dimensions of housing and home are associated with health
status in a direction consistent with expectations following from our analytical model.
d) Data: a mailed survey of residents in the Mount Pleasant and Sunset neighborhoods of
Vancouver, Canada, 1996
e) Dependent variable: self rated health, health satisfaction, mental health (MHI-5), stress
19
f) Independent variable: age, gender, income, education, employment, tenure, housing
measures, neighbourhood measures
i) Other note: snapshot, mechanism, housing measures, neighbourhood measures
63. Dutta, I., Health inequality and non-monotonicity of the health related social welfare
function: A rejoinder. Journal of Health Economics, 2007. 26(2): p. 426-429.
i) Other note: refer to Abasolo paper
64. Edwards, R.D., The cost of cyclical mortality. B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, 2009.
9(1).
a) Main question: the welfare implication of cyclical fluctuation in mortality
b) Main contribution: borrowed models from macroeconomics to look at mortality
c) Main finding: While consumption fluctuations are relatively large, cyclical fluctuations in
mortality are tiny compared to the much larger static uncertainty in length of life that
derives from naturally rising mortality rates through age. Secular improvements in life
expectancy and gains against static health inequalities appear to be much more
important than cyclical mortality.
d) Data: US mortality, GDP 1900-2000
g) Econometric methods: utility-theoretic model of preferences over uncertain length of life,
Gompertz mortality model
i) Other note: mortality, mechanism, only partially related to the topic
65. Edwards, R.D., Trends in World Inequality in Life Span Since 1970. National Bureau of
Economic Research Working Paper Series, 2010. No. 16088.
a) Main question: trend in child mortality
c) Main finding: Convergence in infant mortality has unambiguously reduced world
inequality in total length of life starting from birth, but world inequality in length of adult life
has remained stagnant. Underlying both of these trends is a growing share of total
inequality that is attributable to between-country variation. Especially among developed
countries, the absolute level of between-country inequality has risen over time. The
sources of widening inequality in length of life between countries remain unclear, but
signs point away from trends in income, leaving patterns of knowledge diffusion as a
potential candidate.
d) Data: mortality at birth in 1970 as reported by the United Nations Population Division
2006, life tables in1970 and 2000 based on vital statistics in the World Health
Organization Mortality Database 2009, life tables in 2000 from Human Mortality Database
2009, and other sources
h) Measurement of inequality: mortality at birth, infant, adult
i) Other note: cross country, trend, mortality
66. Eikemo, T.A., et al., Welfare state regimes and differences in self-perceived health in
Europe: A multilevel analysis. Social Science and Medicine, 2008. 66(11): p. 2281-2295.
a) Main question: relation between welfare state regimes and health inequality
c) Main finding: The study showed that almost 90% of the variation in health was
attributable to the individual-level, while approximately 10% was associated with national
welfare state characteristics. The variation across regions within countries was not
20
significant. Type of welfare state regime appeared to account for approximately half of the
national-level variation of health inequalities between European countries. People in
countries with Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon welfare regimes were observed to have
better self-perceived general health in comparison to Southern and East European
welfare regimes.
d) Data: European social survey 2002, 2004, 21 countries and 25 years older
e) Dependent variable: mental and physical health
f) Independent variable: SES (income, occupation, education), age, gender
g) Econometric methods: two step model
i) Other note: cross country, snapshot, welfare system
67. Elstad, J.I. and S. Krokstad, Social causation, health-selective mobility, and the
reproduction of socioeconomic health inequalities over time: Panel study of adult men.
a) Main question: the relation between social causation and health-selective mobility and
SES
c) Main finding: Compared to higher white collar, changes in perceived health during the
study period were more negative among medium-level and manual occupations, and
even more negative among the non-employed. Mobility between occupational classes
among those employed at both observation points was not selective for health, but
transitions into and out of employment were strongly health-selective.
d) Data: Nord-Trondelag Health Study (HUNT), Norway, men between 25-49 in base year,
1984-1986, 1995-1997, panel
e) Dependent variable: perceived health, social mobility
i) Other note: SES, trend
68. Etilé, F. and C. Milcent, Income-related reporting heterogeneity in self-assessed health:

Evidence from France. Health Economics, 2006. 15(9): p. 965-981.
a) Main question: heterogeneity in self reported health
b) Main contribution: look at income related reporting heterogeneity
c) Main finding: We find health production effects essentially for low-income individuals, and
reporting heterogeneity for the choice between the medium labels, i.e. 'fair' vs 'good' and
for high-income individuals, using clinical health measures as a mediate
d) Data: 'Enque te Permanente sur les Conditions de Vie des Menages' survey 2001,
France
i) Other note: measurement, heterogeneity, income
69. Fang, H. and J.A. Rizzo, Does inequality in China affect health differently in high- versus
low-income households? Applied Economics, 2012. 44(9): p. 1081-1090.
a) Main question: what is the effect of income inequality on health disparities in China
b) Main contribution: looks at Chinese issue
c) Main finding: income inequality affects health differently by socioeconomic status: income
inequality harms individual health among low income household by more than it does
among high income households
d) Data: China Health and Nutrition Survey 1997, 2000, 2004, 2006, individual over 18
e) Dependent variable: self reported health (binary variable)
21
f) Independent variable: household income, income inequality (Gini coefficient), other
control (age, gender, education, marital status, size of household, number of children)
g) Econometric methods: fixed effects logit model
h) Measurement of inequality: self reported health
i) Other note: snapshot, income, mechanism
70. Farmer, M.M. and K.F. Ferraro, Are racial disparities in health conditional on
socioeconomic status? Social Science and Medicine, 2005. 60(1): p. 191-204.
a) Main question: the nature of the relationship of racial health inequality and SES
c) Main finding: black adults began the study with more serious illnesses and poorer
self-rated health than white adults and that the disparity continued over the 20 years.
Significant interactions were found between race and education as well as race and
employment status on health outcomes. The interaction effect of race and education
showed that the racial disparity in self-rated health was largest at the higher levels of SES,
providing some evidence for the 'diminishing returns' hypothesis; as education levels
increased, black adults did not have the same improvement in self-rated health as white
adults.
d) Data: US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I and follow up, adults aged
25-74, 1971-75, 1992
e) Dependent variable: mobility, self rated health
f) Independent variable: SES (education, income, occupation, employment), ethnic group
i) Other note: snapshot, SES, income, education, ethnic group, pathways
71. Feinstein, J.S., The relationship between socioeconomic status and health: a review of
the literature. The Milbank quarterly, 1993. 71(2): p. 279-322.
a) Main question: how to explain health inequality
b) Main contribution: literature summary
c) Main finding: two dimensions. One dimension refers to the underlying characteristics of
persons that may cause differences in health status, and divides these characteristics in
to two distinct groups: resource-dependent characteristics like wealth, home ownership,
and automobile ownership; and non-resource-dependent behavioral characteristics,
including psychological, genetic, and cultural factors. The second dimension refers to the
stage of life experience in which inequalities are generated, and can also be conveniently
divided into two groups: inequalities arising from different experiences over the "life
span," such as differences in diet, smoking, exercise, and occupation; and inequalities
that arise from differences in access to and utilization of formal "health care services."
72. Ferraz Nunes, J., Health, social insurance and income. International Advances in
Economic Research, 2008. 14(3): p. 329-335.
a) Main question: relation between health, social insurance, and income
b) Main contribution: further evidence of income and health inequality
c) Main finding: Findings confirm the importance of socioeconomic, behavioral and
environmental factors in explaining health inequalities. The results clearly show men,
educated people, non-smokers, individuals that exercise and youngsters possess higher
health status than other people. The dependency on social insurance is mainly caused by
poor health; a higher degree of social insurance dependency was offset by income
22
increases due to age and higher professional level.
d) Data: randomized research survey, Swedish study, conducted in 2005
e) Dependent variable: EQ-5D (instrument of a general measure of health related quality of
life (HRQL)), social insurance
f) Independent variable: Social insurance dependency, Household income, age, gender,
professional groups, education, smoking, exercise
g) Econometric methods: Three Stage Least Squares
h) Measurement of inequality: EQ-5D, social insurance dependence
i) Other note: snapshot, income, EQ-5D, social insurance
73. Ferrie, J.E., et al., Future uncertainty and socioeconomic inequalities in health: The
Whitehall II study. Social Science and Medicine, 2003. 57(4): p. 637-646.
a) Main question: the relation between SES and health inequality
c) Main finding: Steep, inverse employment grade gradients were observed for all health
measures at Phase 5, except cholesterol and systolic blood pressure in women.
Gradients in the sub-population of non-employed participants tended to be steeper than
gradients for participants in employment, although, with the exception of self-rated health
and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) score in men, differences were non-significant.
Steep gradients in job insecurity were observed among employed participants (pp0.01),
and in financial insecurity among both employed and non-employed participants
(pp0.001), particularly non-employed men. With the exception of depression, adjustment
for job insecurity had little effect on the employment grade gradients in morbidity.
However, financial insecurity contributed substantially to gradients in self rated health,
longstanding illness, and depression in both employed and non-employed men, and
additionally to GHQ score and diastolic blood pressure in the latter. Adjustment for
financial insecurity in non-employed women substantially attenuated gradients in
self-rated health, GHQ score and depression.
d) Data: Whitehall II study, phase 1 and 5
e) Dependent variable: morbidity (self rated health SF36, longstanding illness, GHQ score,
depression, cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, BMI
f) Independent variable: job, financial insecurity
i) Other note: SES, snapshot, trend, gender
74. Fiscella, K., et al., Inequality in quality: Addressing socioeconomic, racial and ethnic
disparities in health care. Journal of the American Medical Association, 2000. 283(19): p.
2579-2584.
a) Main question: SES, racial and ethnic disparities in health care
b) Main contribution: monitor and address disparities in health care through organizational
quality improvement.
c) Main finding: We propose 5 principles to address these disparities through modifications
in quality performance measures
75. Fogel, R.W. and C. Lee, Who Gets Health Care? National Bureau of Economic Research
Working Paper Series, 2003. No. 9870.
a) Main question: disparities in health care access
b) Main contribution: measurement of essential health care
23
i) Other note: health care system
76. Forbes, A. and S.P. Wainwright, On the methodological, theoretical and philosophical
context of health inequalities research: A critique. Social Science and Medicine, 2001.
53(6): p. 801-816.
c) Main finding: The critique draws particular attention to the limitations of survey-derived
data and the dangers of using such data to develop complex social explanations for
health inequalities. The paper discusses wider epistemological issues which emerge from
the critique addressing the fundamental but neglected question of 'what is inequality'
i) Other note: theory, measurement, only partially relevant to the topic
77. Frank, J.W., et al., Socioeconomic gradients in health status over 29 years of follow-up
after midlife: The Alameda county study. Social Science and Medicine, 2003. 57(12): p.
2305-2323.
a) Main question: relationship between SES and health inequality, and its evolution
c) Main finding: Virtually all the gradients are inverse, although there is no simple pattern of
shape, or evolution of shape over time, across health outcomes. However, there is a
consistent trend for male gradients to be distinctly more non-linear than female gradients,
such that the poorest men show disproportionately higher rates of ill healt sub-analyses
of only those long-lived cohort members, who survived through all follow-ups, largely
abolished the non-linearities in the male prevalence curves, making them much more like
female curves.
d) Data: panel survey in Alameda county, California, 1965, 1974, 1983, 1994, aged 40-59 at
base year
f) Independent variable: SES, gender
g) Econometric methods: generalized linear piecewise regression models
i) Other note: trend, SES, gender
78. Fukuda, Y., K. Nakamura, and T. Takano, Municipal socioeconomic status and mortality
in Japan: Sex and age differences, and trends in 1973-1998. Social Science and
Medicine, 2004. 59(12): p. 2435-2445.
a) Main question: gender and age differences and the time trends in the association
between SES and all-cause mortality
c) Main finding: a lower SES was related to higher mortality for all SES indicators and
composite indices. The mortality gradient was steeper for the under 75-year population
than the total and over 75-year populations, and the relation between mortality and
income- and education-related indicators/index was stronger for males than for females.
The time trend showed an increase in the relation for Index 2, while a decrease for Index
1.
d) Data: mortality municipalities in Japan between 1973 and 1998, except 1995
f) Independent variable: SES (income, education, unemployment, living space)
g) Econometric methods: bayesian hierarchical poisson regression
i) Other note: mortality, trend, SES, income, education
79. Gerdtham, U.G. and M. Johannesson, Income-related inequality in life-years and
24
quality-adjusted life-years. Journal of Health Economics, 2000. 19(6): p. 1007-1026.
a) Main question: income related inequality in health
c) Main finding: For both life-years and QALYs, we discover inequalities in health favouring
the higher income groups.
d) Data: Sweden's Survey of Living Conditions, linked to survival data from the National
Causes
of Death Statistics and to income data from the National Income Tax Statistics, adult from 20 to
84 in years 1980-1986
e) Dependent variable: survival time, self reported health
f) Independent variable: household income, age
g) Econometric methods: Cox proportional hazard regression
h) Measurement of inequality: life years, quality adjusted life years
i) Other note: mortality, income
80. Glied, S. and A. Lleras-Muney, Health Inequality, Education and Medical Innovation.
a) Main question: relation of education and health inequalities
c) Main finding: We find evidence supporting the hypothesis that education gradients are
steeper for diseases with more innovation.
d) Data: NHIS1986-1994 surveys were subsequently matched to the Mortality Cause of
Death (MCD) files from 1986 to 1995 for 18 year and older; SEER Cancer Incidence
Public Use Database 1973-1998
e) Dependent variable: 5 year survival
i) Other note: education, trend, pathways, mechanism, mortality
81. Goldman, D. and D. Lakdawalla, Understanding Health Disparities Across Education

Groups. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series, 2001. No. 8328.
a) Main question: association between education and health inequality
c) Main finding: health disparities increase as the price of health inputs falls; technological
progress in health care will tend to raise inequality over time
d) Data: Framingham Heart Study, HCSUS Population US
i) Other note: trend, structural model, education
82. Graham, H., Building an inter-disciplinary science of health inequalities: The example of
lifecourse research. Social Science and Medicine, 2002. 55(11): p. 2005-2016.
c) Main finding: a research methodology that nests epidemiological research within social
policy research: setting evidence on the health consequences of cumulative exposures
within research on life course dynamics, and locating both within analyses of how state
policies can amplify or moderate inequalities in socio-economic position.
i) Other note: qualitative, theory
83. Gravelle, H., Measuring income related inequality in health: Standardisation and the
partial concentration index. Health Economics, 2003. 12(10): p. 803-819.
a) Main question: construction of concentration index
c) Main finding: The paper shows that with individual level data direct standardisation is
possible using the coefficients from a linear regression of health on income and the
25
standardising variables and yields a consistent estimate of the PCI. Indirect
standardisation underestimates the PCI irrespective of the signs of the correlations of
standardising variables and income with each other and with health. An adaptation of the
PCI when the marginal effect of income on health depends on the standardising variables
is also proposed.
i) Other note: measurement, concentration index, income
84. Griffin, J.M., et al., The importance of low control at work and home on depression and
anxiety: Do these effects vary by gender and social class? Social Science and Medicine,
2002. 54(5): p. 783-798.
a) Main question: the relation between gender, social class and depression
c) Main finding: Both women and men with low control either at work or at home had an
increased risk of developing depression and anxiety. We did not find an interaction
between low control at home and work. We did, however, find that the risks associated
with low control either at home or work were not evenly distributed across different social
positions, measured by employment grade. Women in the lowest or middle employment
grades who also reported low control at work or home were at most risk for depression
and anxiety. Men in the middle grade with low work control were at risk for depression
while those in the lowest grade were at risk for anxiety. Men in the middle and highest
grades, however, were at greatest risk for both outcomes if they reported low control at
home.
d) Data: Whitehall II Study, phase 3 and 5
e) Dependent variable: psychological morbidity (GHQ)
f) Independent variable: social position (employment grade), job, gender, age
g) Econometric methods: multivariate analysis
i) Other note: snapshot, pathways, gender, depression
85. Grimm, M., Does inequality in health impede economic growth? Oxford Economic Papers,
2011. 63(3): p. 448-474.
a) Main question: the effects of inequality in health on economic growth in low and middle
income countries
b) Main contribution: cross country comparison, looks at effect of health inequality
c) Main finding: a substantial and relatively robust negative effect of health inequality on
income levels and income growth controlling for life expectancy, country and time
fixed-effects and a large number of other effects that have been shown to matter for
growth
d) Data: Demographic and health survey for 62 countries, from 1985-2007
e) Dependent variable: GDP
f) Independent variable: life expectancy, health inequality, fertility rate, etc.
g) Econometric methods: OLS
i) Other note: cross country, trend, economic growth (reversed direction)
86. Grundy, E. and A. Sloggett, Health inequalities in the older population: The role of
personal capital, social resources and socio-economic circumstances. Social Science
and Medicine, 2003. 56(5): p. 935-947.
a) Main question: understanding the health variations in later life
c) Main finding: socio-economic indicators, particularly receipt of income support (a marker
of poverty) were most consistently associated with raised odds of poor health outcomes.
26
Associations between marital status and health were in some cases not in the expected
direction. This may reflect bias arising from exclusion of the institutional population
(although among those under 85 the proportion in institutions is very low) but merits
further investigation, especially as the marital status composition of the older population
is changing. Analysis of deviance showed that social resources (marital status and social
support) had the greatest effect on the indicator of psychological health (GHQ) and also
contributed significantly to variation in self-rated health, but among women not to
variation in taking three or more medicines and among men not to self-reported
long-standing illnesses. Smoking, in contrast, was much more strongly associated with
these indicators than with self-rated health.
d) Data: Health Survey for England for aged 65-84, 1993-1995
e) Dependent variable: self reported health (long standing illness, self reported health),
nurse collected health (GHQ, blood pressure)
f) Independent variable: personal capital, current social resources, current SES, age,
smoking
i) Other note: snapshot, SES
87. Halliday, T., Health inequality over the life-cycle. B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and
Policy, 2011. 11(3).
a) Main question: how does health differ over age
b) Main contribution: used a dynamic model and fit better than conventional models
c) Main finding: the variance in health at age 60 ranges between 2.5 and five times its
variance at age 25 depending on which demographic group we consider
d) Data: PSID waves 1984-1997, individual 25-60
e) Dependent variable: self reported health status
f) Independent variable: demographic groups, education, gender
g) Econometric methods: A Stress Model of Health
h) Measurement of inequality: self reported health status
i) Other note: age, structural model, mechanism
88. Haron, S.A., et al., Health divide: Economic and Demographic factors associated with
self-reported health among older Malaysians. Journal of Family and Economic Issues,
2010. 31(3): p. 328-337.
a) Main question: relation of income and health inequality
b) Main contribution: further evidence of developing country
c) Main finding: Odds of self-reporting health as bad versus moderate or good were higher
for respondents who were in lower income quintiles, who perceived their financial
situation as bad, who were older and who were not married. Malay, Chinese, Indian, and
Bumiputra ethnic groups had lower odds of perceiving their health to be bad as compared
with those in other ethnic groups.
d) Data: 2004 survey of economic and financial aspects of aging in Malaysia, older
Malaysians (55-70)
f) Independent variable: income, ethnic groups
i) Other note: snapshot, income
27
89. Hauck, K. and N. Rice, A longitudinal analysis of mental health mobility in Britain. Health
Economics, 2004. 13(10): p. 981-1001.
a) Main question: the relation between SES and mental health inequality
c) Main finding: there is much mobility in mental health from one wave to the next. Further
the extent of mobility varies across socio-economic categories with greatest persistence
observed in more disadvantaged groups. In general, these groups suffer poorer mental
health and experience more periods of ill-health.
d) Data: British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), adult over 16, 1990-2000 (11 waves)
e) Dependent variable:12-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)
f) Independent variable: household income, martial status, education, ethnic group,
household size, number of children, occupation, age
g) Econometric methods: random effects variance component models
i) Other note: trend, SES, mental health
90. Hermeto, A.M. and A.J. Caetano, Socioeconomic status, family structure and child
outcomes in Brazil: Health in the childhood. International Journal of Social Economics,
2009. 36(10): p. 979-995.
a) Main question: how to explain the difference between poor and rich Brazilian households
regarding children's outcomes
b) Main contribution: looking at Brazil
c) Main finding: Results suggest that the true effect of family structure is more complex than
the biological relationship of parents to children. There are large effects of family income
distribution on child health indicators. When control variables are included, the magnitude
of these effects changes. The addition of mothers' educational attainment to the set of
controls reduces the estimated income effects. Also, the gradient in the health-income
relationship is a little steeper for older children.
d) Data: 2003 PNAD (Brazilian Household Sample Survey), children 0-14
e) Dependent variable: poor health, chronic disease, health care utilization
f) Independent variable: SES, demographics, family structure
i) Other note: SES, snapshot, family structure
91. Hernández-Quevedo, C., et al., Socioeconomic inequalities in health: A comparative

longitudinal analysis using the European Community Household Panel. Social Science
and Medicine, 2006. 63(5): p. 1246-1261.
a) Main question: cross country comparison of SES related health inequality
c) Main finding: Results demonstrate the existence of socioeconomic inequality in health
across Member States in both the short-term (1 year) and the long-term (up to 8 years),
with health limitations concentrated among those with lower incomes. For all countries,
the long-run indices show that income-related inequalities in health widen over time, in
the sense that the longer the period over which an individual's health and income are
measured the greater the measure of income-related health inequality. The ranking of
countries according to their prevalence of illness differs from ranking by overall health
achievement, which takes account of inequalities. This means that an equity-efficiency
trade-off has to be faced in evaluating the performance of different countries and in
comparing countries with diverse health and social welfare systems.
d) Data: European Community Household Panel Users' Database (ECHP-UDB), 1994-2001
h) Measurement of inequality: Short- and long-run concentration indices together with
28
mobility and health achievement indices
i) Other note: cross country, trend, SES
92. Hodgins, M., M. Millar, and M.M. Barry, "...it's all the same no matter how much fruit or
vegetables or fresh air we get": Traveller women's perceptions of illness causation and
health inequalities. Social Science and Medicine, 2006. 62(8): p. 1978-1990.
a) Main question: perceptions of illness causation and health inequalities
b) Main contribution: contribute to theoretical debates about the role of that identity in
recognising inequality
c) Main finding: The study not only illustrates the complexity of lay perceptions of ill-health
and health inequalities, but raises important questions about the prevalence of
depression and of domestic violence in the Travelling community. The study revealed
that Traveller women see many shortcomings in health service provision. They need
service provision to be culturally sensitive and responsive to their needs.
d) Data: Forty-one Traveller women in Ireland
i) Other note: qualitative, mechanism, pathways
93. Huisman, M., A.E. Kunst, and J.P. Mackenbach, Socioeconomic inequalities in morbidity
among the elderly; A European overview. Social Science and Medicine, 2003. 57(5): p.
861-873.
a) Main question: evidence of SES inequality in morbidity among elderly people
c) Main finding: The results indicate that socioeconomic inequalities in morbidity by
education and income exist among the elderly in Europe, in all the countries in this study
and all age groups, including the oldest old. Inequalities decline with age among women,
but not always among men. Greece, Ireland, Italy and The Netherlands most often show
large inequalities among men, and Greece, Ireland and Spain do so among women. To
conclude, inequalities in morbidity decrease with age, but a substantive part persists in
old age.
d) Data: first wave of 1994 of the European Community Household Panel, aged 60 above
e) Dependent variable: self-assessed health, cut down in daily activities due to a physical or
mental problem, and long-term disability
f) Independent variable: SES (education, household income)
i) Other note: elderly, SES, snapshot, cross country
94. Humphreys, M., et al., Racial disparities in diabetes a century ago: Evidence from the
pension files of US Civil War veterans. Social Science and Medicine, 2007. 64(8): p.
1766-1775.
a) Main question: ethnic differences in diabetes
c) Main finding: Rates of diagnosed diabetes were much lower among males in this period
than a century later. In contrast to the late 20th Century, the rates of diagnosed diabetes
were lower among black than among white males, suggesting that the reverse pattern is
of relatively recent origin. Two-thirds of both white and black veterans had body-mass
indexes (BMIs) in the currently recommended weight range, a far higher proportion than
documented by recent surveys. Longevity among persons with diabetes was not reduced
among Civil War veterans, and those with diabetes suffered comparatively few sequelae
of the condition. Over 90% of black veterans engaged in low paying, high-physical effort
jobs, as compared to about half of white veterans. High rates of work-related physical
29
activity may provide a partial explanation of low rates of diagnosed diabetes among
blacks. We found no evidence of discrimination in testing by race, as indicated by rates of
examinations in which a urinalysis was performed.
d) Data: pension files of US Civil War veterans dates back to 1890s
e) Dependent variable: type 2 diabetes
f) Independent variable: ethnic group
g) Econometric methods: Pair wise t-tests, chi2-tests and regression analysis
i) Other note: ethnic group, trend, snapshot, diabetes
95. Humphries, K.H. and E. Van Doorslaer, Income-related health inequality in Canada.
a) Main question: relation between income related health inequality
c) Main finding: It finds that significant inequalities in self-reported ill-health exist and favour
the higher income groups. The analysis also indicates that lower income individuals are
somewhat more likely to report their self-assessed health as poor or less-than-good than
higher income groups, at the same level of a more 'objective' health indictor such as the
McMaster Health Utility Index. The degree of inequality in 'subjective' health is slightly
higher than in 'objective' health, but not significantly different.
d) Data: 1994 National Population Health Survey, Canada (see Wagstaff and van Doorslaer,
1994)
e) Dependent variable: self reported ill health
i) Other note: income, snapshot, concentration index
96. Hurd, M. and A. Kapteyn, Health, wealth, and the role of institutions. Journal of Human
Resources, 2003. 38(2): p. 386-415.
a) Main question: relation between SES and health
b) Main contribution: look at institutional environment
c) Main finding: income or wealth inequality is closely connected with health inequality. We
empirically estimate counterparts to the theoretical relationships with generally
corroborative results.
d) Data: HRS/AHEAD US (1992-2000), CSS (1993, 1995-1998) and SEP (1994-1997)
Netherlands,
f) Independent variable: income, education
h) Measurement of inequality: SAH
i) Other note: income, education, SES, structural model
97. Jappelli, T., L. Pistaferri, and G. Weber, Health care quality, economic inequality, and
precautionary saving. Health Economics, 2007. 16(4): p. 327-346.
a) Main question: the relation between health care equality and income, health equality
b) Main contribution: The analysis carries important insights for the ongoing debate about
the validity of the life-cycle model and interesting policy implications for the design of
health care systems
c) Main finding: We find that in lower quality districts there is greater income and health
dispersion and higher precautionary saving.
d) Data: 1993 and 1995 Survey of Household Income and Wealth, Italy
30
e) Dependent variable: health status, income, precautionary saving
f) Independent variable: health care inequality
i) Other note: health care inequality, income
98. Jiménez-Rubio, D., P.C. Smith, and E. Van Doorslaer, Equity in health and health care in
a decentralised context: Evidence from Canada. Health Economics, 2008. 17(3): p.
377-392.
a) Main question: income related inequality in health and health care
c) Main finding: The results show that within area variation is the most important source of
income-related health inequality, while income-related inequities in health care use are
mostly driven by differences between provinces.
d) Data: 2001 Canadian Community Health Survey
h) Measurement of inequality: concentration index (geographic decomposition)
i) Other note: income, snapshot, concentration index, health care inequality
99. Jones, A.M. and A. López Nicolás, Measurement and explanation of socioeconomic
inequality in health with longitudinal data. Health Economics, 2004. 13(10): p. 1015-1030.
a) Main question: how are different measures of health inequality inter-related
c) Main finding: For pure health inequality (as measured by the Gini coefficient) and
income-related health inequality (as measured by the concentration index), we show how
measures derived from longitudinal data can be related to cross section Gini and
concentration indices that have been typically reported in the literature to date, along with
measures of health mobility inspired by the literature on income mobility.
d) Data: British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), 1991-1999 (9 waves)
h) Measurement of inequality: income related mobility, GHQ measure of psychological
well-being
i) Other note: measurement, theory, concentration index, GHO measure
100. Jones, A.M. and A. López Nicolás, Allowing for heterogeneity in the decomposition of
measures of inequality in health. Journal of Economic Inequality, 2006. 4(3): p. 347-365.
a) Main question: heterogeneity issue in the regression analysis of health inequality
b) Main contribution: examine heterogeneity
c) Main finding: there is an important degree of heterogeneity in the association of health to
explanatory variables across birth cohorts and genders which, in turn, accounts for a
substantial percentage of the inequality in observed health.
d) Data: British household panel survey 1991-1999
e) Dependent variable: GHQ (General Health Questionnaire) measure of psychological
well-being
f) Independent variable: income, marital status, profession, skill, education, ethnicity
h) Measurement of inequality: Gini index
i) Other note: Gini index, heterogeneity, measurement, SES
101. Jones, A.M., N. Rice, and P. Rosa Dias, Quality of schooling and inequality of opportunity
in health. Empirical Economics, 2011: p. 1-26.
a) Main question: the role of quality of schooling as a source of inequality in health
31
b) Main contribution: look at quality of education
c) Main finding: The analysis provides evidence of a statistically significant and
economically sizable association between some dimensions of quality of education and a
range of health and health-related outcomes. For some outcomes the association
persists, over and above the effects of measured ability, social development, academic
qualifications and adult socioeconomic status and lifestyle.
d) Data: National Child Development Study, panel 1965, 1969, 1974, 1981, 1991, 2000,
2004, Britain, individual from childhood to adulthood
e) Dependent variable: self assessed health, mental illness
f) Independent variable: schooling, childhood health, ability prior to enrolment, parental
background, lifestyles, highest education qualification, social class
g) Econometric methods: conditional distributional regression
h) Measurement of inequality: SAH, mental illness
i) Other note: education, mechanism
102. Julian, L.G., Inequalities in health: Some international comparisons. European Economic
Review, 1987. 31(1-2): p. 182-191.
a) Main question: measuring health inequality
h) Measurement of inequality: mortality, Absolute Mean Difference (AMD), the Gini
coefficient (the differences between every pair of ages-at-death), Atkinson index.
i) Other note: literature, snapshot, cross country, measurement
103. Jürges, H., Health inequalities by education, income and wealth: A comparison of 11
European countries and the US. Applied Economics Letters, 2010. 17(1): p. 87-91.
a) Main question: how does country differ in health inequality
b) Main contribution: looked at education, income, and wealth related health inequality in a
cross country comparison
c) Main finding: The health distributions in the US, England and France are relatively
unequal independent of the stratifying variable, while Switzerland or Austria always have
relatively equal distributions. Some countries such as Italy dramatically change ranks
depending on the stratifying variable.
d) Data: US (HRS 2002) and 11 European countries (English longitudinal study of ageing
2002 and the survey of health, ageing and retirement in Europe 2004) , individual over 50
e) Dependent variable: physical health index (ADL, iADL)
f) Independent variable: education, income, wealth
g) Econometric methods: concentration index model, OLS
h) Measurement of inequality: concentration index as a measure of socio-economic health
inequality
i) Other note: snapshot, cross country, income, education, wealth
104. Kakwani, N., A. Wagstaff, and E. Van Doorslaer, Socioeconomic inequalities in health:
Measurement, computation, and statistical inference. Journal of Econometrics, 1997.
77(1): p. 87-103.
a) Main question: measurement of health inequality
b) Main contribution: looks at different measure of health inequality
d) Data: 1980, 1981 Dutch health interview survey
e) Dependent variable: chronic illness, self reported health
h) Measurement of inequality: relative index of inequality, concentration index
32
i) Other note: measurement, concentration index, relative index of inequality
105. Kaplan, G.A., et al., Inequality in income and mortality in the United States: Analysis of
mortality and potential pathways. British Medical Journal, 1996. 312(7037): p. 999-1003.
a) Main question: how does income inequality affect mortality
b) Main contribution: one of the early study in this topic
c) Main finding: between states in the inequality of the distribution of income are significantly
associated with variations between states in a large number of health outcomes and
social indicators and with mortality trends. These differences parallel relative investments
in human and social capital. Economic policies that influence income and wealth
inequality may have
d) Data: Compressed mortality file 1980, 1990, 1989-1991 US
f) Independent variable: income inequality
g) Econometric methods: Pearson correlation
h) Measurement of inequality: age adjusted mortality
i) Other note: snapshot, income, mortality, trend
106. Karmakar, S.D. and F.C. Breslin, The role of educational level and job characteristics on
the health of young adults. Social Science and Medicine, 2008. 66(9): p. 2011-2022.
a) Main question: The mediating effect of job characteristics in the socioeconomic status
(SES) - health relationship
c) Main finding: Job characteristics partly explain the education gradient observed in
work-related injuries, and to a lesser extent in self-perceived health for working young
adults. Our results show that increased physical exertion and working in sales and
service or manual occupations were job characteristics which were independently
associated with work-related injuries, while low work-related social support and irregular
shift work were associated with poor self-perceived health. Lifestyle factors have a
greater association with the education, self-perceived health relationship. This pattern of
findings suggests that work factors related to education have a more specific effect on
occupational health early in the health trajectory.
d) Data: Canadian workers aged 20-29, Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) Cycle
1.1, 2000/01
e) Dependent variable: self-perceived health and work-related injury
f) Independent variable: sociodemographic, work, and lifestyle
g) Econometric methods: multivariable logistic regressions
i) Other note: SES, education, snapshot, mechanism, pathways
107. Kawachi, I., et al., Social capital, income inequality, and mortality. American Journal of
Public Health, 1997. 87(9): p. 1491-1498.
a) Main question: does income inequality leads to health inequality
b) Main contribution: looking at pathways of this relationship
c) Main finding: income inequality leads to increase mortality via disinvestment in social
capital
d) Data: cross sectional data from 39 US states, general social survey, census population
and housing summary tape, and compressed mortality files
e) Dependent variable: mortality rates
f) Independent variable: social capital measures
33
i) Other note: snapshot, income, pathways, mechanism, mortality
108. Kong, M.K. and H.K. Lee, Income-related inequalities in health: Some evidence from
Korean panel data. Applied Economics Letters, 2001. 8(4): p. 239-242.
a) Main question: how does income inequality impact health inequality
b) Main contribution: looks at Korean data
c) Main finding: inequalities in health favour higher income groups; a close relationship is
also found between health inequality and income inequality across time
d) Data: Korean household panel study 1993-1997, individual over 18
h) Measurement of inequality: ill health score (standardized self assessed health by assume
lognormal distribution of SAH)
i) Other note: snapshot, income, trend
109. Koolman, X. and E. van Doorslaer, On the interpretation of a concentration index of

inequality. Health Economics, 2004. 13(7): p. 649-656.
a) Main question: Add a more intuitive understanding to the concentration index
c) Main finding: A new redistribution interpretation and an existing redistribution
interpretation of the Gini are presented and applied to the concentration index. Both
indicate the share of the total amount of any variable that needs redistributing in a
particular way from rich to poor (or vice versa) to achieve a concentration index equal to
zero.
d) Data: European Community Household Panel survey
h) Measurement of inequality: concentration index, gini coefficient
i) Other note: measurement, theory, concentration index, gini
110. Koskinen, S. and T. Martelin, Why are socioeconomic mortality differences smaller
among women than among men? Social Science and Medicine, 1994. 38(10): p.
1385-1396.
a) Main question: reasons of differences in mortality differences between genders
c) Main finding: The relative magnitude of inequalities among women is considerably
smaller than among men. This result arises totally from the married subpopulation-in
other marital status groups women's inequalities are at least as large as men’s In most
causes of death the socioeconomic mortality gradient is as steep or even steeper among
women in comparison with men. When the cause of death structure of men is applied to
the cause-specific mortality differences of women, the socioeconomic gradient in total
mortality is almost similar among both genders even in the married population.
d) Data: 1980 census linked with death records for the period 1981-85 in the 35-64 year old
population in Finland.
f) Independent variable: SES (education, occupation, housing density, standard of
equipment of dwellings)
h) Measurement of inequality: standardized mortality ratios
i) Other note: mortality, SES, snapshot, gender
111. Krieger, N., D.R. Williams, and N.E. Moss, Measuring social class in us public health
34
research: Concepts, methodologies, and guidelines. Annual Review of Public Health,
1997. 18: p. 341-378.
a) Main question: what are the measures of social class and socioeconomic positions
related to the study of health inequality
b) Main contribution: mapped out a conceptual and practical framework of measures of
social class and socioeconomic position
c) Main finding: measures could include individual level (ownership of capital asset, control
of organization assets, possession of skill or credential assets; occupational based
measures); household level (household composition); neighbourhood level (zip code,
census based measures); other (income, poverty, material and social deprivation, wealth,
education, socioeconomic indices, and prestige-based measures)
i) Other note: literature, measurement, pathways
112. Lahelma, E., et al., Analysing changes of health inequalities in the Nordic welfare states.
a) Main question: changes over time in relative health inequalities among men and women
with SES change
c) Main finding: the prevalence of ill-health remained at a similar level, with Finns having the
poorest health. Analysing all countries together health inequalities by employment status
and education showed no major changes. There were slightly different tendencies among
men and women in inequalities by both health indicators, although these did not reach
statistical significance. Among men there was a suggestion of narrowing health
inequalities, whereas among women such a suggestion could not be discerned. Looking
at particular countries some small changes in men's as well as women's health
inequalities could be found. Over a period of deep economic recession and a large
increase in unemployment, particularly in Finland and Sweden, health inequalities by
employment status and education remained broadly unchanged in all Nordic countries.
Thus, during this fairly short period health inequalities in these countries were not strongly
influenced by changes in other structural inequalities, in particular labour market
inequalities. Institutional arrangements in the Nordic welfare states, including social
benefits and services, were cut during the recession but nevertheless broadly remained,
and are likely to have buffered against the structural pressures towards widening health
inequalities.
d) Data: Surveys on Living Conditions collected in Finland in 1986 and 1994, in Norway in
1987 and 1995, and in Sweden in 1986/87 and 1994/95. Danish Health and Morbidity
Survey from 1987 and 1994
e) Dependent variable: Limiting long-standing illness and perceived health
f) Independent variable: age, gender, employment status and educational attainment
g) Econometric methods: Multivariate logistic regression
i) Other note: trend, cross country, gender, SES, education
113. Lantz, P.M., et al., Socioeconomic factors, health behaviors, and mortality: Results from a
nationally representative prospective study of US adults. Journal of the American Medical
Association, 1998. 279(21): p. 1703-1708.
a) Main question: pathways of income and education to mortality
b) Main contribution: look at pathways
c) Main finding: Although reducing the prevalence of health risk behaviors in low income
populations is an important public health goal, socioeconomic differences in mortality are
due to a wider array of factors and, therefore, would persist even with improved health
35
behaviors among the disadvantaged.
d) Data: Americans' changing lives survey US, adult over 25
f) Independent variable: risk behaviours (smoking, BMI, drinking, lifestyle), income,
education, age, gender, race, residence
g) Econometric methods: Cox proportional hazards model
i) Other note: pathway, mortality, income, education
114. Lauridsen, J., et al., Decomposition of health inequality by determinants and dimensions.
a) Main question: decomposing income-related inequality in general health
b) Main contribution: For policy purposes such information is valuable as it indicates at
which population groups and at which aspects of health efforts to reduce inequalities in
health should be targeted
c) Main finding: It is found that these relative contributions vary substantially across
dimensions.
d) Data: Finnish Health Care Survey in 1995/1996
e) Dependent variable: 15D questionnaire/score
i) Other note: measurement, concentration index, decomposition, 15D score
115. Lauridsen, J., T. Christiansen, and U. Häkkinen, Measuring inequality in self-reported

health - Discussion of a recently suggested approach using Finnish data. Health
Economics, 2004. 13(7): p. 725-732.
a) Main question: look at different measure of inequality
b) Main contribution: validates the conclusions drawn by van Doorslaer and Jones.
c) Main finding: It confirms that the interval regression approach is superior to OLS and
ordered probit regression in assessing health inequality. However, regarding the choice
of scaling instrument, it is concluded that the scaling of SAH categories and,
consequently, the measured degree of inequality, are sensitive to characteristics of the
chosen scaling instrument.
d) Data: Finnish Health Care Survey of 1995/1996
e) Dependent variable: 15D instrument/score, SAH, HUI3
h) Measurement of inequality: SAH, HUI3, 15D score, concentration index
i) Other note: measurement, concentration index, health utility index mark 3, 15D score
116. Leach, J., Ex post welfare under alternative health care systems. Journal of Public
Economic Theory, 2010. 12(6): p. 1027-1057.
a) Main question: The implications of a societal aversion to inequality for the optimal
structure of the health care system
b) Main contribution: study inequality in health care system
c) Main finding: It is shown that the optimal public health care system allocates health care
differently than would private health insurance; the aggregate quantity of health care
under the optimal public health care system can be either greater or smaller than under
private health care insurance.
i) Other note: health care system, theory
36
117. Lecluyse, A. and I. Cleemput, Making health continuous: Implications of different
methods on the measurement of inequality. Health Economics, 2006. 15(1): p. 99-104.
a) Main question: comparing different measures of health inequality
c) Main finding: We found that the concentration index differs, but the income-related health
mobility index and its decomposition are highly similar.
d) Data: eight waves (1994–2001) from the Panel Study of Belgian Households.
h) Measurement of inequality: EQ index, HUI3, concentration index, health mobility index
i) Other note: measurement, concentration index, health utility index mark 3, EQ index
118. Leu, R.E. and M. Schellhorn, The evolution of income-related health inequalities in
Switzerland over time. CESifo Economic Studies, 2006. 52(4): p. 666-690.
a) Main question: how income related health inequality evolve
b) Main contribution: give new evidence on income related inequality in health
c) Main finding: Looking at each of the four years separately the results indicates the usual
positive relationship between income and health, but the distribution is among the least
unequal in Europe; No clear trend emerges in the evolution of the inequality indices over
the two decades; The most important contributors to health inequality are income,
education and activity status, in particular, retirement
d) Data: survey on socio-medical indicators for the population of Switzerland 1982, Swiss
health surveys 1992, 1997, 2002
e) Dependent variable: self assessed health mapped to Health Utilities Index Mark III
i) Other note: trend, snapshot, income
119. Levin, K.A. and A.H. Leyland, A comparison of health inequalities in urban and rural
Scotland. Social Science and Medicine, 2006. 62(6): p. 1457-1464.
a) Main question: health inequality between rural and urban residents
c) Main finding: There was an increase in inequalities between 1981 and 2001, which was
greatest in remote rural Scotland for both males and females; however, male health
inequalities remained higher in urban areas throughout this period. In 2001 female health
inequalities were higher in remote rural areas than urban areas. Health inequalities
amongst the elderly (age 65+) in 2001 were greater in remote rural Scotland than urban
areas for both males and females.
d) Data: all cause mortality for the Scottish population, 1979–2001
e) Dependent variable: all cause mortality
f) Independent variable: location, age
g) Econometric methods: Multilevel Poisson modelling
i) Other note: trend, snapshot, mortality, gender, location
120. Li, H. and Y. Zhu, Income, income inequality, and health: Evidence from China. Journal of
Comparative Economics, 2006. 34(4): p. 668-693.
a) Main question: association of income, community level of income inequality and health
b) Main contribution: further evidence for developing countries
c) Main finding: we find an inverted-U association between self reported health status and
income inequality, which suggests that high inequality in a community poses threats to
health. We also find that high inequality increases the probability of health-compromising
37
behavior such as smoking and alcohol consumption.
d) Data: CHNS China 1989, 1991, 1993, 1997, 2000. Mainly from 1993 wave for individual
over 20
e) Dependent variable: self reported health, physical functions, ADL, health behaviour
f) Independent variable: Gini, income, education, gender, marital status, family size, clean
water, access to road, rural
g) Econometric methods: probit
i) Other note: income, income inequality, mechanism
121. Lindeboom, M. and E. Van Doorslaer, Cut-point shift and index shift in self-reported
health. Journal of Health Economics, 2004. 23(6): p. 1083-1099.
a) Main question: heterogeneity in ordered responses on health questions
c) Main finding: This paper proposes a test for differential reporting in ordered response
models which enables to distinguish between cut-point shift and index shift. We find clear
evidence of index shifting and cut-point shifting for age and gender, but not for income,
education or language.
d) Data: Canadian National Population Health Survey data.
g) Econometric methods: ordered probit
h) Measurement of inequality: The McMaster Health Utility Index Mark 3 (HUI3)
i) Other note: measurement, health utility index mark 3
122. Lindelow, M., Sometimes more equal than others: How health inequalities depend on the
choice of welfare indicators. Health Economics, 2006. 15(3): p. 263-279.
a) Main question: the effect of different measure of socioeconomic status
c) Main finding: The results call for more clarity and care in the analysis of health related
inequalities, and for explicit recognition of the potential sensitivity of findings to the choice
of welfare measure. The results also point at the need for more careful research on how
different dimensions of SES are related, and on the pathways by which the respective
different dimensions impact on health related variables.
d) Data: 1996/1997 Mozambique National Household Survey on Living Conditions (IAF)
e) Dependent variable: health service utilization
i) Other note: measurement, concentration index, SES measure
123. Lundberg, O., Causal explanations for class inequality in health - an empirical analysis.
a) Main question: cause of social class inequality in health
c) Main finding: physical working conditions are the prime source of class inequality in
physical illness, although economic hardship during upbringing and health related
behaviours also contribute. For class inequality in mental illness these three factors plus
weak social network are important. In sum, a large part of the class differences in
physical as well as mental illness can be understood as a result of systematic differences
between classes in living conditions, primarily differences in working conditions.
d) Data: 1981 level of living study, individual 15-75 years old Sweden
e) Dependent variable: physical illness, mental illness
f) Independent variable: material deprivation, non-material deprivation, social networks and
social support, lifestyle/health related behaviours, social role
g) Econometric methods: log-linear model with a dependent variable
38
i) Other note: pathways, mechanism, mental health
124. Lynch, J.W., G.A. Kaplan, and J.T. Salonen, Why do poor people behave poorly?
Variation in adult health behaviours and psychosocial characteristics by stages of the
socioeconomic lifecourse. Social Science and Medicine, 1997. 44(6): p. 809-819.
a) Main question: association between SES, health behaviour, psychosocial orientations,
health inequality
c) Main finding: many adult behaviours and psychosocial dispositions detrimental to health
are consistently related to poor childhood conditions, low levels of education, and
blue-collar employment. Poor adult health behaviours and psychosocial characteristics
were more prevalent among men whose parents were poor. Increases in income
inequality which place children into low SES conditions may well produce a negative
behavioural and psychosocial health dividend to be reaped in the future.
d) Data: Kuopio lschaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study, middle aged Finnish men
e) Dependent variable: adult health behaviour, psychosocial characteristics
f) Independent variable: SES in childhood, adolescence and adulthood
g) Econometric methods: GLM procedure
i) Other note: causal effect, SES, education, income
125. Mackenbach, J.P., Socio-economic health differences in the Netherlands: A review of

recent empirical findings. Social Science and Medicine, 1992. 34(3): p. 213-226.
a) Main question: review of the evidence on variation in the frequency of health problems
between socio-economic groups in the Dutch population
c) Main finding: It is clear now that a lower socioeconomic status is associated with a higher
frequency of a wide range of health problems. The magnitude of the differences varies
from study to study, and possibly from health problem to health problem. Information on
trends in health inequalities over time is limited to children's body height and adult
mortality. gap between the 1950s and the 1980s. The evidence on specific factors which
are involved in the 'causal chain' between socio-economic status and health problems is
rather limited at the moment.
i) Other note: literature, snapshot, causal effect, trend
126. Mackenbach, J.P. and A.E. Kunst, Measuring the magnitude of socio-economic
inequalities in health: An overview of available measures illustrated with two examples
from Europe. Social Science and Medicine, 1997. 44(6): p. 757-771.
a) Main question: measure the magnitude of SES inequality in health
h) Measurement of inequality: ratio of low on high, regression, gini coefficient, other
i) Other note: measurement, literature
127. Mackenbach, J.P., et al., Socioeconomic inequalities in morbidity and mortality in western
Europe. Lancet, 1997. 349(9066): p. 1655-1659.
a) Main question: SES impact on health inequality
b) Main contribution: overcome methodological drawbacks
c) Main finding: Inequalities in health were found in all countries; Our results challenge
conventional views on the between-country pattern of inequalities in health in western
European countries
d) Data: 1985-1992, national representative health interviews from 11 western European
39
countries
e) Dependent variable: self reported morbidity, mortality
f) Independent variable: education, occupation, income
g) Econometric methods: rank
h) Measurement of inequality: morbidity, mortality
i) Other note: cross country, snapshot, income, education, SES
128. Macleod, J., et al., Is subjective social status a more important determinant of health than
objective social status? Evidence from a prospective observational study of Scottish men.
a) Main question: relation between subjective social status and health inequality
c) Main finding: Lower social position, whether indexed by more objective or more
subjective measures, was consistently associated with an adverse profile of established
disease risk factors. Perceived stress showed the opposite association. rather than
targeting perceptions of disadvantage and associated negative emotions, interventions to
reduce health inequalities should aim to reduce objective material disadvantage,
particularly that experienced in early life.
d) Data: 1970-1973 Scotland recruitment from 27 workplaces, men aged 35-64, followed for
25 years
e) Dependent variable: mortality, hospital admission
f) Independent variable: occupation class, height, plasma cholesterol, blood pressure
g) Econometric methods: proportional hazards models
i) Other note: mortality, social status, pathways, mechanism
129. Manor, O., S. Matthews, and C. Power, Health selection: The role of inter- and
intra-generational mobility on social inequalities in health. Social Science and Medicine,
2003. 57(11): p. 2217-2227.
a) Main question: effect of health selection and its contribution to the social class gradient in
health
c) Main finding: Individuals with poor health were more likely to move down and less likely to
move up the social scale, especially at the inter-generational transition. The effect of
health selection on the social gradient was variable, of modest size and cannot be
regarded as a major explanation for inequalities in health in early adulthood.
d) Data: The 1958 birth cohort includes all children born in England, Wales and Scotland
during the 3–9 March 1958, panel (age 16, 23, 33 follow up)
e) Dependent variable: sickness absence from school in the preceding year at 16, self rated
health
f) Independent variable: social class at birth and follow up
g) Econometric methods: log linear model
) Other note: intergeneration, causal effect, pathways, mechanism, SES
130. Marmot, M., et al., Social inequalities in health: Next questions and converging evidence.
a) Main question: association of mortality and SES
c) Main finding: indirect selection cannot account for inequalities in health. Possible
mediators that link social position to physical and mental health include smoking and
features of the psycho-social environment at work and outside.
d) Data: Whitehall II Study of British, Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) of men and
40
women who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957, age 53-54 in 1992/93,
National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) aged 19 over in 1987/88,
e) Dependent variable: self perceived health, depression, psychological well being, smoking
f) Independent variable: gender, education, occupation, employment grade
g) Econometric methods: odds ratio
i) Other note: SES, mortality, cross country, snapshot
131. Marmot, M.G., M.J. Shipley, and G. Rose, Inequalities in death: Specific explanations of a
general pattern? Lancet, 1984. 1(8384): p. 1003-1006.
a) Main question: relation between professional grade and mortality
c) Main finding: The inverse relation between height and mortality suggests that factors
operating from early life may influence adult death rates.
d) Data: Whitehall study, UK, 40-69 years old civil servant, start from 1967-1969 cover 10
years
e) Dependent variable: mortality, other health indicators (BP, BMI, height, etc.)
f) Independent variable: professional grade
i) Other note: Whitehall, occupation, snapshot
132. Marmot, M.G., et al., Health inequalities among British civil servants: The Whitehall II
study. Lancet, 1991. 337(8754): p. 1387-1393.
a) Main question: relation between employment grade and morbidity
c) Main finding: In the 20 years separating the two studies there has been no diminution in
social class difference in morbidity
d) Data: Whitehall II study 1985-1988, UK, 35-55 year olds
e) Dependent variable: morbidity (angina, ischaemia, chronic bronchitis, etc)
f) Independent variable: professional grade
i) Other note: Whitehall, snapshot, occupation, trend
133. Martikainen, P., et al., A comparison of socioeconomic differences in physical functioning

and perceived health among male and female employees in Britain, Finland and Japan.
a) Main question: the pattern of socioeconomic inequalities in physical functioning and
perceived health
c) Main finding: Britain, Finland and Japan—representing 'liberal', 'Nordic' and 'conservative'
welfare state regimes— produce broadly similar patterns of socioeconomic differences in
health among men. However, different patterns of labour force participation and welfare
provision in different welfare regimes may bring about different patterns of socioeconomic
differences in health for working women. This is exemplified by the lack of health
inequalities among employed Japanese women.
d) Data: employees of a prefecture on the west coast of Japan and Takarazuka City in
1998–1999 and 1997–1998, Helsinki Health Study baseline survey of municipal
employees from the City of Helsinki in 2000 and 2001, Whitehall II study
e) Dependent variable: perceived health and physical functioning SF36
f) Independent variable: gender, occupation
41
i) Other note: cross country, gender, SES, occupation
134. Maynard, A., European health policy challenges. Health Economics, 2005. 14(SUPPL. 1):
p. S255-S263.
i) Other note: health care inequality
135. McLean, C., C. Campbell, and F. Cornish, African-Caribbean interactions with mental
health services in the UK: Experiences and expectations of exclusion as (re)productive of
health inequalities. Social Science and Medicine, 2003. 56(3): p. 657-669.
a) Main question: health inequalities among minority ethnic groups
c) Main finding: We conclude that participation and partnership are vital means by which to
generate both the objective and subjective inclusion that are requirements for an
accessible and appropriate health service
d) Data: African Caribbean in UK, South East England town 2001 interview
i) Other note: qualitative, case study, ethnic group, snapshot, health care inequality, mental
health
136. Meheus, F. and E. Van Doorslaer, Achieving better measles immunization in developing
countries: does higher coverage imply lower inequality? Social Science and Medicine,
2008. 66(8): p. 1709-1718.
a) Main question: association of poverty and disparity in measles immunization
c) Main finding: The results indicate that most countries have experienced an improvement
in their mean measles immunization rate but that this improvement was often unequally
distributed across wealth groups, disfavouring the poor in all countries. Mean
improvements were found to be associated with both increasing and decreasing
inequality. When the trend in the mean and in the degree of inequality was opposite, the
trend in the overall 'achievement' score is determined by the assumed underlying degree
of inequality aversion. As such, the achievement measure 'penalizes' coverage
improvements that leave the poor lagging behind.
d) Data: measles immunization coverage for countries with two DHSs (Demographic and
Health Surveys) available between 1990 and 2001 in 21 countries
e) Dependent variable: coverage of measles immunization
i) Other note: cross country, trend, SES, immunization
137. Mete, C., Predictors of elderly mortality: Health status, socioeconomic characteristics and
social determinants of health. Health Economics, 2005. 14(2): p. 135-148.
a) Main question: determinants of elderly mortality
c) Main finding: The empirical analysis confirms a relationship between socioeconomic
characteristics and mortality, but this relationship weakens considerably when estimates
are conditional on the health status at the time of the first wave survey. In terms of
predictive power, the models with an activities of daily living index fare better (as opposed
to models with self-evaluated health or self-reported illnesses). Having said that there is a
payoff to the consideration of self evaluated health jointly with other 'objective' health
indicators. Other findings include a strong association between life satisfaction and
survival, which prevails even after controlling for other explanatory variables.
42
d) Data: 1989, 1993 and 1996 waves of the Survey of Health and Living Status of the Middle
Aged and Elderly in Taiwan, aged 60 and over
f) Independent variable: health status, gender, age, martial status, education, financial
status,
g) Econometric methods: Ordered probit
i) Other note: SES, snapshot, mortality
138. Michaud, P.C. and A. van Soest, Health and wealth of elderly couples: Causality tests
using dynamic panel data models. Journal of Health Economics, 2008. 27(5): p.
1312-1325.
a) Main question: causal effect on relation between wealth and health
b) Main contribution: study causal effect on both directions
c) Main finding: In contrast to tests relying on models with only first order lags or without
unobserved heterogeneity, these tests provide no evidence of causal wealth health
effects. On the other hand, we find strong evidence of causal effects from both spouses'
health on household wealth. We also find an effect of the husband's health on the wife's
mental health, but no other effects from one spouse's health to health of the other
spouse.
d) Data: six biennial waves of couples aged 51-61 in 1992-2002 from the US Health and
Retirement Study
e) Dependent variable: health (self reported health, severe conditions, mild conditions, ADL,
BMI), wealth (liquid and non liquid wealth)
f) Independent variable: health, wealth
g) Econometric methods: reduced/structural AVR
i) Other note: causal effect, wealth, mechanism
139. Miller, C.M., et al., Emerging health disparities in Botswana: Examining the situation of
orphans during the AIDS epidemic. Social Science and Medicine, 2007. 64(12): p.
2476-2486.
a) Main question: connation of health disparities and orphan status
c) Main finding: We found that orphaned children aged 0–4 are 49% more likely to be
underweight than nonorphans controlling for household poverty and other factors; and
orphans disproportionately live in the poorest households.
d) Data: 2000 Botswana Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, children under 5
e) Dependent variable: weight
f) Independent variable: orphan status
g) Econometric methods: multilevel logistic regression
i) Other note: snapshot, children
140. Mohan, J., et al., Social capital, geography and health: A small-area analysis for England.
a) Main question: influence of social capital on health outcomes
c) Main finding: Our overall conclusion is that we find little support, at this spatial scale, for
the proposition that area measures of social capital exert a beneficial effect on health
outcomes.
d) Data: Health and Lifestyle Survey of England, 1984/85
e) Dependent variable: survival of individuals
43
f) Independent variable: individual attributes, health-related behaviours, area measures of
deprivation, and area measures of social capital
g) Econometric methods: logistic models
i) Other note: snapshot, social capital, measurement
141. Monden, C.W.S., Current and lifetime exposure to working conditions. Do they explain
educational differences in subjective health? Social Science and Medicine, 2005. 60(11):
p. 2465-2476.
a) Main question: association between education and health
c) Main finding: lower educated men are significantly more exposed to adverse working
conditions than higher educated men. These differences increase over the life course.
Among women there are relatively small educational differences in exposure. Lifetime
exposure to adverse working conditions explains a significant part (a third) of the health
differences between the highest and lowest educated men. Moreover, measurements of
lifetime exposure to working conditions offer a better explanation for educational
differences in health than measurements of current exposure. Among women, only
relative lifetime exposure to working conditions can explain a small part of the educational
differences in health, while current and absolute lifetime exposure do not explain these
differences.
d) Data: 2000 Family Survey Dutch Population
e) Dependent variable: self-reported health
f) Independent variable: working conditions over the life-course, education
g) Econometric methods: Ordinary least-squares regression
i) Other note: snapshot, pathways, mechanism, education
142. Monden, C.W.S., G. Kraaykamp, and N.D. De Graaf, Trends in social inequality in
self-reported health in the Netherlands; does infant mortality in year of birth as a cohort
indicator matter? Social Science and Medicine, 2003. 56(5): p. 987-1000.
a) Main question: (1) to what extent can trends in self-reported health be explained by the
current macro-context (period effect) and by infant mortality in year of birth (cohort effect)?
And (2) do the effects of period and cohort differ for educational groups?
c) Main finding: First, for men poor health has been more or less stable, for women there
has been an increase. The prevalence of chronic conditions has increased for both sexes.
Second, adding cohort specific experiences to a model including age and period effects
is only relevant for women's poor health. Decreasing infant mortality in year of birth leads
to better health and consequently the period effect initially found for women appears to be
slightly underestimated. Third, we found no trends in social inequalities in self-reported
health due to period effects. Fourth, our analyses do show socially unequal trends in
health as a result of cohort specific experiences. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found
that decreased infant mortality in year of birth makes for a stronger impact of educational
differences on self-reported poor health. Concerning chronic conditions no trends for
educational groups were found.
d) Data: Netherlands Health Interview Survey (NHIS, annually since 1983) and the Living
Conditions Survey/Continuous Living Conditions Survey (LCS/CLCS, irregularly from
1974 to 1996
e) Dependent variable: self-reported poor health and chronic conditions
f) Independent variable: infant mortality in year of birth, age, children in the household,
household income, education, gender, marital status, labour market participation
44
i) Other note: trend, education ,SES
143. Monden, C.W.S., et al., Partner's and own education: Does who you live with matter for
self-assessed health, smoking and excessive alcohol consumption? Social Science and
Medicine, 2003. 57(10): p. 1901-1912.
a) Main question: relationship between partner's SES and health outcomes
c) Main finding: Accounting for both partners' education the social gradient in self-assessed
health and smoking is steeper than based on own or partner's education alone. The
social gradient in health is underestimated by not considering partner's education,
especially for women.
d) Data: Netherlands Health Interview Survey between 1989 and 1996, aged 25–74 years
e) Dependent variable: self-assessed health and smoking
) Other note: snapshot, education
144. Muennig, P., et al., The income-associated burden of disease in the United States. Social
a) Main question: the total burden of disease associated with income
c) Main finding: The bottom 80% of adult income earners' life expectancy is 4.3 years and
5.8 HALYs shorter relative to those in the top 20% of earnings. This translates into the
loss of 11 million YLLs and 17.4 million HALYs each year. Compared with persons living
above the poverty threshold, those living below the poverty threshold live an average of
3.2 million fewer HALYs per year—a difference of 8.5 HALYs per individual between age
18 and death. The income-associated burden of disease appears to be a leading cause
of morbidity and mortality in the US.
d) Data: 2000 US Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, the 1990–1992 US National Health
Interview Survey linked to National Death Index data through the end of 1995, 2000 US
mortality data
e) Dependent variable: life expectancy, health-adjusted life expectancy, annual years of life
lost (YLLs), and health adjusted life years (HALYs)
f) Independent variable: income
i) Other note: snapshot, mortality, life expectancy
145. Nazroo, J.Y., The structuring of ethnic inequalities in health: Economic position, racial
discrimination, and racism. American Journal of Public Health, 2003. 93(2): p. 277-284.
a) Main question: what drives the observed ethnic inequalities in health
b) Main contribution: new evidence on the underlying cause of ethnic inequalities in health
c) Main finding: social and economic inequalities, underpinned by racism, are fundamental
causes of ethnic inequalities in health
d) Data: looked at relevant research in US and UK
h) Measurement of inequality: general health, disease
i) Other note: literature, ethnic inequalities, pathways, mechanism
146. Nolte, E. and M. McKee, Changing health inequalities in east and west Germany since
unification. Social Science and Medicine, 2004. 58(1): p. 119-136.
a) Main question: income-related health inequalities and its modulation by psychosocial
45
factors
c) Main finding: The results show that, unlike in the west, the overall increase in income
inequality in east Germany between 1992 and 1997 was not accompanied by a
simultaneous increase in income-related health inequalities. This suggests that
mechanisms involved in the association of socio-economic factors and health possibly
behave differently in east and west.
d) Data: German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) for the years 1992 and 1997, including
individuals aged 25+
e) Dependent variable: self-perceived health
f) Independent variable: socio-economic and psychosocial determinants
i) Other note: snapshot, trend, cross country, income
147. O'Neill, D., et al., A cost-effectiveness analysis of the Incredible Years parenting
programme in reducing childhood health inequalities. European Journal of Health
Economics, 2011: p. 1-10.
a) Main question: evaluate Incredible Years program
b) Main contribution: program evaluation
c) Main finding: programme provides a cost-effective way of reducing behavioural problems
d) Data: randomized trail in Incredible Years program in Ireland, focus on childhood mental
health
e) Dependent variable: Eyberg Child Behaviour Inventory (ECBI)
f) Independent variable: demographic characteristics
g) Econometric methods: DID
h) Measurement of inequality: conduct problem in childhood
i) Other note: mechanism, mental health, program evolution
148. Östberg, V. and B. Modin, Status relations in school and their relevance for health in a life
course perspective: Findings from the Aberdeen children of the 1950's cohort study.
a) Main question: whether and how peer status is associated with self-reported health in
mid-life
c) Main finding: a graded association between peer status and adult health problems in the
form of limiting longstanding illness and less than good self-rated health. These
associations could not be explained by socioeconomic circumstances or differences in
individual behaviour and cognitive score in childhood. It was rather subsequent
socioeconomic career that seemed to explain the association found among men. For
women, a significant association remained, suggesting alternative pathways or
mechanisms.
d) Data: cohort study of individuals born in Aberdeen, Scotland, between 1950 and 1956,
followed in 2001-2003
e) Dependent variable: limiting longstanding illness, self rated health
f) Independent variable: childhood circumstances, including peer status nominations; adult
circumstances
g) Econometric methods: Multivariate analyses
i) Other note: intergeneration, pathways, mechanism, SES
149. Pappas, G., et al., The increasing disparity in mortality between socioeconomic groups in
46
the United States, 1960 and 1986. New England Journal of Medicine, 1993. 329(2): p.
103-109.
a) Main question: what is the trend of mortality
b) Main contribution: study of trend
c) Main finding: the inverse relation between mortality and SES persisted in 1986 and was
stronger than in 1960. The disparity in mortality rates according to income and education
increased fro men and women, whites and blacks, and family members and unrelated
persons. Despite an overall decline in death rate in the US since 1960, poor and poorly
educated people still die at higher rates than those with higher incomes and better
educations, and this disparity increased between 1960 and 1986
d) Data: 1986 National Mortality Followback Survey, 1986 National Health interview survey,
age 25-64
f) Independent variable: income, gender, race, family status, education
h) Measurement of inequality: mortality ratio
i) Other note: trend, income, gender, ethnic inequality, education, mortality
150. Popay, J., et al., A proper place to live: Health inequalities, agency and the normative
dimensions of space. Social Science and Medicine, 2003. 57(1): p. 55-69.
a) Main question: the links between lay knowledge, place and health related social action
c) Main finding: The qualitative analysis has identified 'guidelines' that we argue provide
socially shared understandings of the normative contours of 'proper places' which shape
the way people respond to the everyday lived reality of places. The quantitative findings
suggest that a substantial minority of people, particularly in disadvantaged areas, are
exposed to significant dissonance between the normative dimensions and lived
experience of place.
d) Data: in-depth interviews and neighbourhood survey data across four localities in two
cities in the North West of England
i) Other note: qualitative
151. Power, C. and S. Matthews, Origins of health inequalities in a national population sample.
Lancet, 1997. 350(9091): p. 1584-1589.
a) Main question: relation between social position and adult disease risk factors
c) Main finding: Social class of origin was associated with physical risk factors (birth weight,
height, and adult body mass index); economic circumstances, including household
overcrowding, basic amenities, and low income; health behaviour of parents
(breastfeeding and smoking) and of participants (smoking and diet); social and family
functioning and structure, such as divorce or separation of participants or their parents,
emotional adjustment in adolescence, social support in early adulthood; and educational
achievement and working career, in particular no qualifications, unemployment, job strain,
and insecurity. With few exceptions, there were strong significant trends of increasing risk
from classes I and II to classes IV and V. Self-perceived health status and symptoms
were worse in participants with lower class origins.
d) Data: 1958 birth cohort in UK, follow till 33 years old
e) Dependent variable: health at 33 (self rated health, longstanding illness, psychological
distress, respiratory symptoms, asthma, back pain, arthritis, stomach trouble,
hypertension, etc)
f) Independent variable: social origins, household conditions, family economic conditions,
47
nutrition
g) Econometric methods: Mantel-Haenszel x2 test, tabulation
i) Other note: mechanism, SES
152. Pradhan, M., D.E. Sahn, and S.D. Younger, Decomposing world health inequality.
Journal of Health Economics, 2003. 22(2): p. 271-293.
a) Main question: within and cross country inequality in health status (heights)
c) Main finding: Our calculation of world height inequality indicates that, in contrast with
similar research on income inequality, within-country variation is the source of most
inequality, rather than the differences between countries.
d) Data: children up to 36 months from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Living
Standards Measurement Survey for some countries
e) Dependent variable: height
i) Other note: children, cross country, snapshot
153. Read, J.G. and B.K. Gorman, Gender inequalities in US adult health: The interplay of
race and ethnicity. Social Science and Medicine, 2006. 62(5): p. 1045-1065.
a) Main question: ethnicity and gender disparity in health
c) Main finding: Contrary to finding universal excess in female morbidity, the results show
that the magnitude of gender difference varies considerably by racial/ethnic group, health
outcome, and comparison category. The most striking findings are the consistently higher
levels of functional limitations for all women compared to men in their same racial/ethnic
group and the poorer health of black women relative to both white and black men for all
health measures, after adjustment for socioeconomic and background factors. The
gender gap for all other health measures is more variable, and for Mexican women a
difference is only evident for functional limitations and only when compared to Mexican
men.
d) Data: 1997–2001 waves of the National Health Interview Survey, US
e) Dependent variable: self-rated health, functional limitations, and life-threatening medical
conditions
f) Independent variable: gender, ethnic group
g) Econometric methods: Huber or White estimator of variance
i) Other note: snapshot, gender, ethnic group
154. Regidor, E., et al., Comparing social inequalities in health in Spain: 1987 and 1995/97.
a) Main question: health inequality trend
c) Main finding: health inequalities were larger by educational level than by social class and
were larger in women than in men. Inequalities in perceived general health, diabetes
mellitus and chronic bronchitis/asthma increased in Spain between 1987 and 1995/97
d) Data: Spanish National Interview Surveys from 1987, 1995 and 1997, aged 25–74 years
e) Dependent variable: less-than-good perceived general health and four chronic conditions
- heart disease, diabetes mellitus, chronic bronchitis/asthma and allergies
f) Independent variable: social class and educational level, gender
g) Econometric methods: binomial regression estimate
i) Other note: trend, SES, education, gender
48
155. Ricciuto, L.E. and V.S. Tarasuk, An examination of income-related disparities in the
nutritional quality of food selections among Canadian households from 1986-2001. Social
a) Main question: social economic disparity in nutrition
c) Main finding: Results revealed significant positive relationships between income and
most nutrients, which persisted over time, and for some nutrients grew stronger. There
was also a significant negative relationship between income and total energy density
d) Data: 1986, 1992, 1996 and 2001 Family Food Expenditure surveys
e) Dependent variable: nutritional quality of food purchases
f) Independent variable: household income
g) Econometric methods: general linear models
i) Other note: trend, income, nutrition
156. Rose, D. and D.J. Pevalin, Social class differences in mortality using the National
Statistics Socio-economic Classification - Too little, too soon: A reply to Chandola. Social
i) Other note: refer to Chandola's (2000; Social Science and Medicine, 50(5), 641±649)
157. Rosenberg, M.W. and K. Wilson, Gender, poverty and location: How much difference do
they make in the geography of health inequalities? Social Science and Medicine, 2000.
51(2): p. 275-287.
a) Main question: connection among health, gender, poverty and location
c) Main finding:
d) Data: National Population Health Survey Canada 1996/97
e) Dependent variable: chronic conditions
f) Independent variable: gender, age, marital status, education, income, employment,
immigrant status, household size,
i) Other note: location, snapshot
158. Roy, K. and A. Chaudhuri, Influence of socioeconomic status, wealth and financial
empowerment on gender differences in health and healthcare utilization in later life:
evidence from India. Social Science and Medicine, 2008. 66(9): p. 1951-1962.
a) Main question: gender differences in health during later life from developing countries
c) Main finding: Our results indicate that older women report worse self-rated health, higher
prevalence of disabilities, marginally lower chronic conditions, and lower healthcare
utilization than men. The health disadvantage and lower utilization among women cannot
be explained by demographics and the differential distribution of medical conditions.
While successive controls for education, income, and property ownership narrows the
gender gap in both health and healthcare utilization, significant differentials still persist.
Upon controlling for economic independence, gender differentials disappear or are
reversed, with older women having equal or better health than otherwise similar men.
Financial empowerment might confer older women the health advantage reflected in
developed societies by enhancing a woman's ability to undertake primary and secondary
prevention during the life course.
d) Data: decennial socioeconomic and health survey, India, 1995/96, aged 60 over
e) Dependent variable: subjective and objective health, and healthcare utilization
f) Independent variable: demographics, medical conditions, traditional indicators of
49
socioeconomic status like education and income, and additional wealth indicators
g) Econometric methods: ordered and binary logit
i) Other note: SES, snapshot, health care inequality, gender
159. Ruiz, F., L. Amaya, and S. Venegas, Progressive segmented health insurance:
Colombian health reform and access to health services. Health Economics, 2007. 16(1):
p. 3-18.
a) Main question: health care utilization and expenditure
c) Main finding: Results showed that subsidized health insurance improves health service
utilization and reduces the financial burden for the poorest, as compared to those
non-insured. Other social health insurance schemes preserved high utilization with
variable out-of-pocket expenditures. Family and age conditions have significant effect on
medical service utilization. Geographic variables play a significant role in hospital
inpatient service utilization. Both, geographic and income variables also have significant
impact on out-of-pocket expenses
d) Data: self administrated survey in Colombian in 2000-2001
e) Dependent variable: access to health care
f) Independent variable: SES, geographic variables, social security (insurance), risk
adjustment variables (health status)
g) Econometric methods: logit and linear model
i) Other note: SES, health care inequality, snapshot
160. Santana, P., Poverty, social exclusion and health in Portugal. Social Science and
Medicine, 2002. 55(1): p. 33-45.
a) Main question: To what extent can poverty cause a worsening of health status? Is there
any sustainable positive association between welfare and improved health status? How,
to whom and when should actions to improve the health status of the disadvantaged be
addressed, without subverting the health status of the rest of the population.
b) Main contribution: contribute to the knowledge about disadvantage, the current health
situation of the most vulnerable groups in Portuguese society - those affected by poverty,
deprivation and social exclusion - and to detect the constraints on access to health and
health care.
c) Main finding:
d) Data: survey in 1999/2000, Portugal
e) Dependent variable: health care utilization, health problem, health status
i) Other note: snapshot, health care inequality
161. Scambler, G. and P. Higgs, 'The dog that didn't bark': Taking class seriously in the health
inequalities debate. Social Science and Medicine, 2001. 52(1): p. 157-159.
i) Other note: qualitative, commentary, social class
162. Siegrist, J. and M. Marmot, Health inequalities and the psychosocial environment - Two
scientific challenges. Social Science and Medicine, 2004. 58(8): p. 1463-1473.
a) Main question: relation between adverse psychosocial environments during midlife and
health inequality
b) Main contribution: advance the case for the robust associations between measures of
50
adverse psychosocial environment and ill health
c) Main finding: We argue that exposure to an adverse psychosocial environment, in terms
of job tasks, defined by high demands and low control and/or by effort–reward imbalance,
elicits sustained stress reactions with negative long-term consequences for health. These
exposures may be implicated in the association of socioeconomic status with health in
two ways.
i) Other note: theory
163. Singh-Manoux, A. and M. Marmot, Role of socialization in explaining social inequalities in

health. Social Science and Medicine, 2005. 60(9): p. 2129-2133.
a) Main question: pathways to social inequality in health
c) Main finding: This paper argues that social selection, materialist/structural and
cultural/behavioural explanations for social inequalities in health are related to each other
through the mechanism of socialization, seen here as a process through which societies
shape patterns of behaviour and being that then affect health.
i) Other note: theory
164. Skinner, J. and W. Zhou, The Measurement and Evolution of Health Inequality: Evidence
from the U.S. Medicare Population. National Bureau of Economic Research Working
Paper Series, 2004. No. 10842.
a) Main question: measure health inequality, health care inequality
c) Main finding: We suggest a new approach to measuring inequality: the use of
quality-based effective care measures. In sum, the rapid relative growth in health care
expenditures among low income elderly people has not translated into relative
improvement either in survival or rates of effective care.
d) Data: Continuous Medicare History Survey, zip code 1990
h) Measurement of inequality: health care expenditure, life expectancy
i) Other note: health care inequality, income, snapshot
165. Smith, K.E., Health inequalities in Scotland and England: the contrasting journeys of
ideas from research into policy. Social Science and Medicine, 2007. 64(7): p. 1438-1449.
a) Main question: how key actors involved in research-policy dialogues understand the
processes involved
c) Main finding: it is ideas, rather than research evidence, which have travelled from
research into policy
d) Data: semi structured interviews with 58 key actors in the field of health inequalities
research and policymaking in the UK
i) Other note: qualitative, health care policy
166. Smith, K.V. and N. Goldman, Socioeconomic differences in health among older adults in
Mexico. Social Science and Medicine, 2007. 65(7): p. 1372-1385.
a) Main question: relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and health
c) Main finding: In urban areas, we find patterns similar to those in industrialized countries:
higher SES individuals are more likely to report better health than their lower SES
counterparts, regardless of the SES measure considered. In contrast, we find few
significant SES–health associations in less urban areas. The results for health behaviors
51
are generally similar between the two areas of residence. One exception is the
education–obesity relationship. Our results suggest that education is a protective factor
for obesity in urban areas and a risk factor in less urban areas. Contrary to patterns in the
industrialized world, income is associated with higher rates of obesity, smoking, and
excessive alcohol consumption. We also evaluate age and sex differences in the
SES–health relationship among older Mexicans.
d) Data: Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS), elderly aged 50 over
e) Dependent variable: current health (self-rated health and two measures of physical
functioning) and three behavioral indicators (obesity, smoking, and alcohol consumption)
f) Independent variable: SES (education, income, and wealth)
g) Econometric methods: Ordinal logit regression, Logit models
i) Other note: snapshot, SES, education, income, ADL
167. Soares, R.R., On the Determinants of Mortality Reductions in the Developing World.
a) Main question: determinants of mortality reduction in developing countries
c) Main finding: We argue that increases in life expectancy between 1960 and 2000 were
largely independent from improvements in income and nutrition. Public health
infrastructure, immunization, targeted programs, and the spread of less palpable forms of
knowledge all seem to have been important factors. the paper suggests that the evolution
of health inequality across and within countries is intrinsically related to the process of
diffusion of new technologies and to the nature of these new technologies (public or
private).
i) Other note: pathways, mortality, cross country, trend
168. Stafford, M., O. Duke-Williams, and N. Shelton, Small area inequalities in health: Are we
underestimating them? Social Science and Medicine, 2008. 67(6): p. 891-899.
a) Main question: relation between location and health inequality
c) Main finding: Irrespective of the boundary definition used, between-area inequalities in
obesity, alcohol intake, smoking, walking and self-rated health were small compared with
inequalities between individuals. There was a tendency for slightly larger estimated
inequalities across areas defined by socioeconomic homogeneity compared with other
definitions, but differences between methods were very small in magnitude.
d) Data: London boroughs of Camden and Islington, Health Survey for England 1999
e) Dependent variable: BMI, alcohol intake, walking, smoking, self rated health
f) Independent variable: location
i) Other note: measurement
169. Stephens, C., Social capital in its place: Using social theory to understand social capital
and inequalities in health. Social Science and Medicine, 2008. 66(5): p. 1174-1184.
a) Main question: link between social capital and health inequality
c) Main finding: The results of this study suggest that social connections are not necessarily
located in neighbourhoods, and that social capital will be better understood in a broader
social context which includes competition for resources between deprived and
non-deprived groups, and the practices of all citizens across neighbourhoods. When
considering social capital, an exclusive focus on deprived neighbourhoods as sites for
52
research and intervention is not helpful.
d) Data: Forty-six residents of, a rural town, a deprived city suburb, or an affluent suburb,
volunteered to be interviewed about their social connections
i) Other note: qualitative, social capital, mechanism
170. Tain, L., Health inequality and users' risk-taking: A longitudinal analysis in a French
reproductive technology centre. Social Science and Medicine, 2003. 57(11): p.
2115-2125.
a) Main question: demographic analysis of the production of social inequality, and its
progress
c) Main finding: lay experience of risk in reproductive technology shows profound
inequalities related to social status, despite the fact that equality would seem to be
guaranteed in France, since the social security system covers the full cost of the
treatments.
d) Data: collected from the medical files of a French public hospital located in a big city in
1987, 1991
i) Other note: qualitative, only partially relevant to the topic
171. Teerawichitchainan, B. and J.F. Phillips, Ethnic differentials in parental health seeking for
childhood illness in Vietnam. Social Science and Medicine, 2008. 66(5): p. 1118-1130.
a) Main question: user fees for primary health care services and health inequality
c) Main finding: Ethnic minority parents less frequently reported their children to have been
sick than Kinh and Chinese parents. When they recognize an illness episode, minority
parents are less likely to seek cared whether professional consultation or self-prescribed
cared than nonminority parents. Ethnic differentials are evident in all geographic and
income levels, although adverse effects of minority status are most pronounced among
poor households in remote areas.
d) Data: parental recall of illness and care-seeking for sick children under the age of 5 years
recorded by the 2001e2002 Vietnam National Health Survey
e) Dependent variable: child illness incidence, parent's care seeking for childhood illness
f) Independent variable: gender of children, age, number of siblings, maternal age,
maternal education, location, household wealth, exposure to policy
g) Econometric methods: Maximum-likelihood multinomial logistic regression
i) Other note: health care inequality, snapshot, policy evaluation
172. Testi, A. and E. Ivaldi, Material versus social deprivation and health: A case study of an
urban area. European Journal of Health Economics, 2009. 10(3): p. 323-328.
a) Main question: the relative magnitudes of impact of SES on health inequality
b) Main contribution: look at material and social deprivation, confined to urban area only
c) Main finding: material index is the more suitable measure to explain variations in
premature mortality within an urban area
d) Data: 2001 census Italy, 2001-2003 death registry Genoa Italy
e) Dependent variable: standardised mortality ratio under 65
f) Independent variable: material index, social deprivation index
g) Econometric methods: factor analysis and correlation
i) Other note: mechanism, mortality, SES
53
173. Thrane, C., Explaining educational-related inequalities in health: Mediation and
moderator models. Social Science and Medicine, 2006. 62(2): p. 467-478.
a) Main question: how education and certain lifestyle factors affect people's self-reported
health
c) Main finding: Two main findings are presented: (1) Both education and lifestyle factors
have the expected effects on health. (2) The results do not permit a clear-cut conclusion
as to which of the two models of educational-related health inequalities should be
preferred: whereas the results support the mediation model in the data from Rogaland,
the moderator model is partially supported in the Nordland data.
d) Data: Norway's National Health Screening Service 1998/99 aged between 40-43
f) Independent variable: lifestyle factors (BMI, diet, light physical activity, hard physical
activity), Gender, employment status, welfare support, and loneliness, education
g) Econometric methods: multinomial logistic regression mode
i) Other note: snapshot, education, theory
174. Torsheim, T., et al., Cross-national variation of gender differences in adolescent

subjective health in Europe and North America. Social Science and Medicine, 2006.
62(4): p. 815-827.
a) Main question: gender differences in subjective health
c) Main finding: The results indicated a very robust pattern of increasing gender differences
across age, with 15-year-old girls as a group at increased risk for health complaints
across all countries. The magnitude of gender differences varied across countries, with
some countries showing a consistently strong gender difference across age group and
different health complaints, and other countries showing a consistently weak gender
difference. The gender difference in health complaints was stronger in countries with a
low gender development index score. The findings underscore the need to incorporate
socio-contextual factors in the study of gender health inequalities during adolescence.
d) Data: 11- to 15-year-olds from 29 European and North American countries, 'Health
behaviour in school-aged children (HBSC) 1997/98'
e) Dependent variable: Health complaints
f) Independent variable: individual level factor (alcohol, smoking, family affluence, material
living conditions, social support), macro level factor (GDI, GEM)
g) Econometric methods: multilevel logistic regression
i) Other note: cross country, snapshot, gender
175. Tubeuf, S. and F. Jusot, Social health inequalities among older Europeans: The
contribution of social and family background. European Journal of Health Economics,
2011. 12(1): p. 61-77.
cca) Main question: the determining factors of social health inequalities
b) Main contribution: examine the role of parent's social status and age of death on social
health inequalities
c) Main finding: The study highlights significantly higher wealth-related health inequalities in
the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany. These social inequalities of health in Europe
are explained largely by individuals' current social conditions, particularly wealth.
Nevertheless, our analysis attests the existence of a long term influence of initial
conditions in childhood on health in middle-aged and beyond, independently of current
social characteristics, which contribute to differences in health status across social
54
groups
d) Data: ten European countries from 2004 SHARE (survey of health, ageing and retirement
in Europe), individual over 50
f) Independent variable: individual characteristics (age, sex, occupation, education, wealth)
g) Econometric methods: interval regression
i) Other note: snapshot, cross country, mechanism, concentration index
176. Van Doorslaer, E. and U.G. Gerdtham, Does inequality in self-assessed health predict
inequality in survival by income? Evidence from Swedish data. Social Science and
Medicine, 2003. 57(9): p. 1621-1629.
a) Main question: whether there is an effect of an individual's self-assessed health (SAH) on
his subsequent survival probability and if this effect differs by socioeconomic factors. how
much of the income-related inequality in mortality can be explained by income-related
inequality in SAH?
c) Main finding: the effect of SAH on mortality risk declines with age, but does not seem to
differ by indicators of socioeconomic status (SES) like income or education. inequality in
SAH accounts for only about 10% of mortality inequality if interactions are not allowed for,
but its contribution is increased to about 28% if account is taken of the reporting
tendencies by age.
d) Data: Sweden's Survey of Living Conditions (the ULF survey), which was linked to
all-cause mortality data from the National Causes of Death Statistics and to income data
taken from the National Income Tax Statistics, 1980-1986, adults aged 20-84
e) Dependent variable: mortality, self reported health
f) Independent variable: self reported health, income, SES
g) Econometric methods: Cox proportional hazard model, concentration index
i) Other note: mortality, SES, income, snapshot, pathways, mechanism
177. Van Doorslaer, E. and A.M. Jones, Inequalities in self-reported health: Validation of a
new approach to measurement. Journal of Health Economics, 2003. 22(1): p. 61-87.
a) Main question: internal validity of using the McMaster 'Health Utility Index Mark III' (HUI)
c) Main finding: The interval regression approach, which exploits a mapping from the
empirical distribution function (EDF) of HUI into SAH, outperforms the other approaches.
d) Data: Canadian 'National Population Health Survey 1994–1995', individual
g) Econometric methods: OLS, ordered probit and interval regression approaches
h) Measurement of inequality: HUI Mark 3
i) Other note: measurement, Health Utility Index Mark 3
178. van Doorslaer, E. and X. Koolman, Explaining the differences in income-related health
inequalities across European countries. Health Economics, 2004. 13(7): p. 609-628.
b) Main contribution: new evidence on the sources of differences in the degree of
income-related inequalities in self assessed health in 13 European Union member states
c) Main finding: Significant inequalities in health (utility) favouring the higher income groups
emerge in all countries, but are particularly high in Portugal and } to a lesser extent } in
the UK and in Denmark. By contrast, relatively low health inequality is observed in the
Netherlands and Germany, and also in Italy, Belgium, Spain Austria and Ireland. There is
a positive correlation with income inequality per se but the relationship is weaker than in
55
previous research. Health inequality is not merely a reflection of income inequality. A
decomposition analysis shows that the (partial) income elasticities of the explanatory
variables are generally more important than their unequal distribution by income in
explaining the cross-country differences in income-related health inequality. Especially
the relative health and income position of non-working Europeans like the retired and
disabled explains a great deal of 'excess inequality'. We also find a substantial
contribution of regional health disparities to socioeconomic inequalities, primarily in the
Southern European countries.
d) Data: 1996 wave of the European Community Household Panel
i) Other note: cross country, concentration index, decomposition, SES, trend
179. van Doorslaer, E., X. Koolman, and A.M. Jones, Explaining income-related inequalities in
doctor utilisation in Europe. Health Economics, 2004. 13(7): p. 629-647.
b) Main contribution: new international comparative evidence on the factors driving
inequalities in the use of GP and specialist services in 12 EU member states
c) Main finding: We find little or no evidence of income-related inequity in the probability of a
GP visit in these countries. Conditional upon at least one visit, there is even evidence of a
somewhat pro-poor distribution. By contrast, substantial pro-rich inequity emerges in
virtually every country with respect to the probability of contacting a medical specialist.
Despite their lower needs for such care, wealthier and higher educated individuals
appear to be much more likely to see a specialist than the less well-off. This phenomenon
is universal in Europe, but stronger in countries where either private insurance cover or
private practice options are offered to purchase quicker and/or preferential access.
Pro-rich inequity in subsequent visits adds to this access inequity but appears more
related to regional disparities in utilisation than to other factors. Despite decades of
universal and fairly comprehensive coverage in European countries, utilisation patterns
suggest that rich and poor are not treated equally.
d) Data: 1996 wave of the European Community Household Panel (ECHP)
e) Dependent variable: health care utilization for general practitioner and medical specialist
i) Other note: health care utilization, cross country, snapshot, concentration index,
decomposition, SES
180. Van Doorslaer, E., et al., Income-related inequalities in health: Some international
comparisons. Journal of Health Economics, 1997. 16(1): p. 93-112.
a) Main question: income related inequality in health in cross country comparison
c) Main finding: Inequalities in health favoured the higher income groups and were
statistically significant in all countries. Across countries, a strong association was found
between inequalities in health and inequalities in income.
d) Data: 1987 health and social security survey Finland, 1992 social economic panel survey
West and East Germany, 1986-1988 health interview survey Netherlands, 1987 health
interview survey Spain, 1990 LNU level of living survey Sweden, 1982 SOMIPOP survey
Switzerland, 1985 general household survey UK, 1987 National medical expenditure
survey US
f) Independent variable: income
i) Other note: income, cross country, snapshot, concentration index
56
181. van Hooijdonk, C., et al., Exceptions to the rule: Healthy deprived areas and unhealthy
wealthy areas. Social Science and Medicine, 2007. 64(6): p. 1326-1342.
a) Main question: area characteristics and health inequality
b) Main contribution: looking at factors that contradicts to prediction of health inequality
c) Main finding: urbanisation and residential segregation based on age, ethnicity and marital
status might be important contributors to geographical health inequalities.
d) Data: All death records of the Dutch population between 1997 and 2001, Hospital
admission data from 1998 until 2000 originated from the National Medical registration
(LMR)
e) Dependent variable: mortality and hospitalisation rates
f) Independent variable: area income
i) Other note: location, mortality, pathways, mechanism, SES
182. Van Ourti, T., Socio-economic inequality in ill-health amongst the elderly: Should one use
current or permanent income? Journal of Health Economics, 2003. 22(2): p. 219-241.
a) Main question: relation of income and ill health with different measure of income
c) Main finding: Measured inequality among the 65+ remains very limited, suggesting that
the observed findings are not heavily dependent upon the income concept. I suggest an
explanation for the observed difference in inequality between the 65- and the 65+. I argue
that this difference is likely to be correlated with differences across income groups of (1)
sample attrition; and (2) mortality.
d) Data: Panel Study of Belgian Households (PSBH) 1992-1998 Belgian population
f) Independent variable: income, permanent income
i) Other note: income, concentration index, snapshot
183. Veenstra, G., Location, location, location: Contextual and compositional health effects of
social capital in British Columbia, Canada. Social Science and Medicine, 2005. 60(9): p.
2059-2071.
a) Main question: geographical attributes and health effects
c) Main finding: location (community of residence) did little to explicate health inequalities in
this context. The strongest predictors of health in multivariate and multilevel models were
characteristics of individual survey respondents, namely, income, trust in politicians and
governments, and trust in other members of the community. Breadth of participation in
networks of voluntary association was not significantly related to health in multivariate
models.
d) Data: Twenty-five communities on the coast of British Columbia, Canada, with self
administrated survey in 2002 on individual over 18
e) Dependent variable: Long-term limiting illness, Self-rated health
f) Independent variable: Social capital, Economic characteristics
g) Econometric methods: Non-linear multilevel model with logit link function
i) Other note: location, pathways, mechanism, SES, income
184. Victora, C.G., et al., Explaining trends in inequities: Evidence from Brazilian child health
57
studies. Lancet, 2000. 356(9235): p. 1093-1098.
a) Main question: how health inequities change over time
b) Main contribution: look at "inverse equity hypothesis"
c) Main finding: Time trends for inequity ratios for morbidity and mortality, which were
consistent with the hypothesis, showed both improvements and deterioration over time,
despite the indicators showing absolute improvements in health status between rich and
poor.
d) Data: children less than 3, Brazil survey 1986, 1990, 1994
e) Dependent variable: infant and child mortality
i) Other note: trend, mortality, children
185. von dem Knesebeck, O., P.E. Verde, and N. Dragano, Education and health in 22
European countries. Social Science and Medicine, 2006. 63(5): p. 1344-1351.
a) Main question: educational health inequalities and age and gender differences in the
association between education and health
c) Main finding: people with low education (lower secondary or less) have elevated risks of
poor self-rated health and functional limitations. Inequalities are relatively small in Austria,
Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, large inequalities were found for Hungary,
Poland, and Portugal. Analyses of age differences reveal that health effects of education
are stronger at ages 25–55 than in the higher age groups. However, age differences in
the education–health association vary between countries, sexes, and health indicators. In
conclusion, our results confirm that educational inequalities in health are a generalised
though not invariant phenomenon. Variations between countries, sexes and health
indicators might be one explanation for the inconsistent results of other studies on age
differences in the association between socioeconomic position and health.
d) Data: European Social Survey 2003, for 22 European countries of individuals over 25
e) Dependent variable: self rated health, functional limitations
f) Independent variable: education, age, gender
g) Econometric methods: multiple logistic regression
i) Other note: education, gender, cross country, snapshot
186. Wadsworth, M.E.J.W., Health inequalities in the life course perspective. Social Science
and Medicine, 1997. 44(6): p. 859-869.
c) Main finding: Life history approaches to the study of inequalities in health provide
evidence that the biological and the social beginnings of life carry important aspects of
the child's potential for adult health. Life history studies of health are beginning to show
the important factors associated with the development of these pathways, and the life
stages at which intervention to reduce adult health inequalities may be most effective
i) Other note: literature, theory
187. Wagstaff, A., Inequality aversion, health inequalities and health achievement. Journal of
a) Main question: This paper addresses two issues. The first is how health inequalities can
be measured in such a way as to take into account policymakers' attitudes towards
inequality. The Gini coefficient and the related concentration index embody one particular
58
set of value judgements. By generalising these indices, alternative sets of value
judgements can be reflected. The other issue addressed is how information on health
inequality can be used together with information on the mean of the relevant distribution
to obtain an overall measure of health 'achievement'
d) Data: Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) for 44 developing countries
e) Dependent variable: under-five mortality, child malnutrition, adult total fertility rate
h) Measurement of inequality: gini coefficients, concentration index
i) Other note: measurement, gini coefficient, concentration index
188. Wagstaff, A., P. Paci, and E. Van Doorslaer, On the measurement of inequalities in
health. Social Science and Medicine, 1991. 33(5): p. 545-557.
c) Main finding: This paper offers a critical appraisal of the various methods employed to
date to measure inequalities in health. It suggests that only two of these--the slope index
of inequality and the concentration index-are likely to present an accurate picture of
socioeconomic inequalities in health. The paper also presents several empirical
examples lo illustrate of the dangers of using other measures such as the range, the
Lorenz curve and the index of dissimilarity.
i) Other note: literature, theory, measurement
189. Wagstaff, A. and E. van Doorslaer, Overall versus-socioeconomic health inequality: A

measurement framework and two empirical illustrations. Health Economics, 2004. 13(3):
p. 297-301.
b) Main contribution: a framework for comparing empirically overall health inequality and
socioeconomic health inequality for both individual level and group level data
c) Main finding: the degree of socioeconomic inequality is estimated at around 25% of
overall inequality for Vietnamese children and Canadian adults
d) Data: 1994 National Population Health Survey (NPHS) Canada, 1998 Vietnam Living
Standards Survey (VLSS)
e) Dependent variable: McMaster Health Utility Index (HUI), child's height-for-age percentile
score (HAP)
h) Measurement of inequality: gini coefficient
i) Other note: measurement, gini coefficient, SES
190. Wagstaff, A. and N. Watanabe, What difference does the choice of SES make in health
inequality measurement? Health Economics, 2003. 12(10): p. 885-890.
a) Main question: effect of different measure of SES on health inequality measure
c) Main finding: First, whilst similar rankings in the two the SES measures will result
in similar inequalities, this is a sufficient condition not a necessary one. What matters is whether
rank differences are correlated with health – if they are not, the measured degree of
inequality will be the same. Second, the statistical importance of choosing one SES
measure rather than another can be assessed simply by estimating an artificial
regression. Third, in the 19 countries examined here, it seems for the most part to make
little difference to the measured degree of socioeconomic inequalities in malnutrition
among under-five children whether one measures SES by consumption or by an
asset-based wealth index.
d) Data: USAID's Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 19 multipurpose LSMS-type
household surveys from 19 countries (see table 1 for detail)
59
i) Other note: measurement, theory, SES, concentration index
191. Warren, J.R., et al., Job characteristics as mediators in SES-health relationships. Social
a) Main question: relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and health
c) Main finding: We find support for our hypotheses, although the extent to which job
characteristics mediate SES–health relationships varies across health outcomes and by
sex.
d) Data: Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS), US, 1992/93
e) Dependent variable: self-assessed overall health and cardiovascular and
musculoskeletal health problems
f) Independent variable: SES (education, income), health behaviours, family SES
background, job characteristics
g) Econometric methods: Ordered logistic regressions, OLS
i) Other note: SES, pathways, mechanism, income, education
192. Weitoft, G.R., et al., Health and social outcomes among children in low-income families
and families receiving social assistance-A Swedish national cohort study. Social Science
and Medicine, 2008. 66(1): p. 14-30.
a) Main question: health and social outcomes among children related to parental disposable
income and receipt of social assistance
c) Main finding: The results indicate that growing up in a family on long-term social
assistance is a robust risk marker for compromised long-term development.
d) Data: Swedish national registry, 1993 and 2002, families with children
e) Dependent variable: all-cause mortality, suicide attempt, alcohol and drug misuse
f) Independent variable: low income, social assistance
g) Econometric methods: Poisson and logistic regressions
i) Other note: income, children, mortality
193. West, P., Health inequalities in the early years: Is there equalisation in youth? Social
a) Main question: class differentiated in health inequality
c) Main finding: youth, in contrast to childhood, is characterised by relative equality in health,
and proposes a process of equalisation to account for changes in the social class
patterning of certain dimensions of health between these life stages
e) Dependent variable: mortality, chronic illness, specific conditions, self-rated health,
symptoms of acute illness, accidents and injuries, and mental health
i) Other note: literature, theory, children, youth
194. West, P. and H. Sweeting, Evidence on equalisation in health in youth from the West of
Scotland. Social Science and Medicine, 2004. 59(1): p. 13-27.
a) Main question: child–youth transition of health inequality: (a) that equalisation is more
likely for health state measures (physical and malaise symptoms and accidents) than
health status ([limiting] longstanding illness and self-rated health) or health potential
(height), and (b) that the patterning of health over this period is similar between
occupational (social class) and non-occupational (deprivation, housing tenure and family
affluence) SES measures.
60
c) Main finding: The results showed very little evidence of SES differences in (limiting)
longstanding illness at any age for both sexes, while self-rated health exhibited some
differentiation, and height (as expected) consistent gradients throughout. By contrast,
among males evidence of equalisation was found for both physical and malaise
symptoms and pedestrian road traffic accidents (RTAs). Among females, equalisation
was confined to specific physical symptoms, pedestrian RTAs, sports injuries and
burns/scalds, while for malaise symptoms a reverse gradient at age 11 strengthened with
age. These patterns were generally unaffected by the SES measure used.
d) Data: West of Scotland 11 to 16 cohort, followed from late childhood (aged 11) through
early (13) to mid (15) adolescence
e) Dependent variable: Longstanding (and limiting longstanding) illness, Self-rated health,
symptoms, accidents or injuries, height
g) Econometric methods: p values forthe linear component in the Chi-Square for categorical
variables and F-test for continuous measures
i) Other note: youth, children, SES
195. Whitehead, M., B. Burström, and F. Diderichsen, Social policies and the pathways to
inequalities in health: A comparative analysis of lone mothers in Britain and Sweden.
a) Main question: association of social position and inequality in health
c) Main finding: the results show that the health of lone mothers is poor in Sweden as well
as in Britain and, most notably, that the magnitude of the differential between lone and
couple mothers is of a similar order in Sweden as in Britain. the pathways leading to the
observed health disadvantage of lone mothers appear to be very different in the two
countries in relation to the identified policy entry points.
d) Data: British General Household Survey and the Swedish Survey of Living Conditions
1979-1995/96
e) Dependent variable: fair/poor health and limiting long-standing illness
i) Other note: policy evaluation, trend, cross count, pathways, mechanism
196. Wiggins, R.D., et al., Place and personal circumstances in a multilevel account of
women's long-term illness. Social Science and Medicine, 2002. 54(5): p. 827-838.
a) Main question: association of geographical variation and health inequality
c) Main finding: Geographical differences in LLTI are not, therefore, entirely explained by
the distribution of individual characteristics; a woman with the same history may face a
different risk of illness in different kinds of area. For women, the social composition of the
locality (usingthe ward as a proxy) is more relevant than the broader economic and
industrial classification of the surroundingcounty district, which is more important for
health inequalities among men.
d) Data: National Statistics Longitudinal Study for England and Wales, women aged 16-45
in 1971 and surveyed again in 1991
e) Dependent variable: limiting long term illness
f) Independent variable: social and material advantage, location
g) Econometric methods: logistic multilevel regression model
i) Other note: location, snapshot
61
197. Wildman, J., The impact of income inequality on individual and societal health: Absolute
income, relative income and statiscal artefacts. Health Economics, 2001. 10(4): p.
357-361.
b) Main contribution: This paper presents a four-quadrant diagram, which shows the effect
of income, relative income and aggregation bias on individual and societal health.
c) Main finding: The model predicts that increased income inequality reduces average
health regardless of whether relative income affects individual health. If relative income
does have a direct effect then societal health will decrease further.
h) Measurement of inequality: health production function
i) Other note: theory, structural model, income, mechanism
198. Wildman, J., Income related inequalities in mental health in Great Britain: Analysing the
causes of health inequality over time. Journal of Health Economics, 2003. 22(2): p.
295-312.
a) Main question: level of income related health inequality
c) Main finding: It is found that subjective financial status is a major determinant of ill-health
and makes a major contribution to income related inequalities in health. Relative
deprivation is an important contributor for women but not for men.
d) Data: British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), adult over 16, 1992, 1998
e) Dependent variable: GHQ (General Health Questionnaire) variable
f) Independent variable: income, relative deprivation measure, age, household size,
number of children, job status, marital status, etc.
i) Other note: snapshot, concentration index, mechanism
199. Wildman, J., Modelling health, income and income inequality: The impact of income
inequality on health and health inequality. Journal of Health Economics, 2003. 22(4): p.
521-538.
a) Main question: impact of the distribution of income on individual health and health
inequality, with individual health modelled as a function of income and the distribution of
income
c) Main finding: It is demonstrated that the impact of income inequality can generate
non-concave health production functions resulting in a non-concave health production
possibility frontier.
i) Other note: theory, income
200. Wilkinson, R.G., Socioeconomic Determinants of Health: Health Inequalities: Relative or

Absolute Material Standards? BMJ: British Medical Journal, 1997. 314(7080): p. 591-595.
a) Main question: is mortality influenced by absolute or relative living standards
b) Main contribution: look at psychosocial pathways to health inequality,
c) Main finding: psychosocial effects of social position account for the larger part of health
inequalities
i) Other note: literature (short), mortality, psychosocial pathways
201. Williams, D.R. and C. Collins, US Socioeconomic and Racial Differences in Health:
Patterns and Explanations. Annual Review of Sociology, 1995. 21(1): p. 349-386.
62
a) Main question: evidence for persisting inequalities in health by socioeconomic status
(SES) and race
b) Main contribution: review of literature
c) Main finding:
SES remains a persistent and pervasive predictor of variations in health outcomes;
The extent to which the association between SES and health has been widening in recent
decades has emerged as a major issue in the SES literature, and generally finding is that
the gap is widening in recent decades; A stepwise progression of risk in the relationship
between SES and health status, with each higher level of SES associated with better
health status; The age patterning of the association between SES and mortality has been
addressed in recent studies; Women are overrepresented among the poor, but the nature
of the association between SES and women's health status is not well understood
There is growing interest in understanding the contribution of biological factors to
human behavior in general and processes of social stratification in particular; The
difference in life expectancy has been widening for white and blacks; Socioeconomic
differences between racial groups are largely responsible for the observed patterns of
racial disparities in health status; A growing body of theoretical and empirical work
suggests that racism is a central determinant of the health status of oppressed racial and
ethnic populations
Mechanisms underlying SES and racial differences in health: use of medicare,
health behaviors, working conditions, environmental exposure, national economy,
personality, early life conditions, power and control
f). Independent variable: measure SES: Income, education, and occupational status are the
most common (but not without its flaws)
h) Measurement of inequality: mortality, mental health status, general health
i) Other note: literature, SES, income, education, ethnic inequality, mechanism, mortality,
mental health
202. Williams, R.F.G. and D.P. Doessel, Improving mental health inequality? Some initial
evidence from Australia. Applied Economics Letters, 2009. 16(2): p. 131-136.
a) Main question: how to measure mental health
b) Main contribution: present alternative way of measure mental health
c) Main finding: in the dimension of mental health measured here, little has improved over
an entire four-decade period
d) Data: Queensland Australia, 1964-2003 hospital morbidity dataset
e) Dependent variable: pre-SMI (serious mental illness) healthy time
g) Econometric methods: linear equations with autoregressive error term
h) Measurement of inequality: mental health inequality (cov, gini, Atkinson measure,
Absolute Mean Difference)
i) Other note: trend, mental health, Geni, Atkinson measure, AMD
203. Xie, E., Income-related inequalities of health and health care utilization. Frontiers of
Economics in China, 2011. 6(1): p. 131-156.
a) Main question: the role of income in inequalities of health and health care utilization
b) Main contribution: look at health care utilization
c) Main finding: There is pro-rich inequality in health and utilization of health care; income
contribution to inequality of health care utilization accounts for 0.13–0.2; insurance also
enlarges the inequality of health care utilization; health inequality in rural area is larger
than that of in urban area; and both rural and urban health inequality are increasing.
63
d) Data: CHNS China 1989, 1991, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2004, 2006, individual level
e) Dependent variable: health care utilization
f) Independent variable: income, demographic (age, gender, education, employment,
occupation, region, urbanicity, medical insurance, household size, clean water, sanitary
status, distance to hospital), morbidity(self reported health)
g) Econometric methods: Oaxaca decomposition
i) Other note: trend, mechanism, concentration index, income, health care utilization
204. Xu, K.T., State-level variations in income-related inequality in health and health
achievement in the US. Social Science and Medicine, 2006. 63(2): p. 457-464.
a) Main question: state level variation in income related inequality in health and overall
health achievement
c) Main finding: Significant variations were found across states in income related inequality
in health and health achievement. About 80% of the state-level variation in health
achievement could be explained by demographics, economic structure and performance,
and state and local government spending and burden. In contrast, medical care resource
indicators were not found to contribute to health achievement in states. Also, per capita
state and local government spending, particularly the proportion spent on public health,
was positively associated with better health achievement.
d) Data: Current Population Survey 2001
e) Dependent variable: Health Concentration and Health Achievement Indices
f) Independent variable: Demographic composition, Economic structure and performance,
Health care resources, State and local government spending and burden
g) Econometric methods: interval regression
i) Other note: pathways, mechanism, location, concentration index
205. Zheng, B., A new approach to measure socioeconomic inequality in health. Journal of
Economic Inequality, 2011. 9(4): p. 555-577.
a) Main question: socioeconomic inequality in health
b) Main contribution: new approach to rank and measure health inequality
d) Data: joint Canada/US survey of health 2002-2003
h) Measurement of inequality: index measure based upon the Lorenz dominance condition
i) Other note: measurement, SES
206. Zimmer, Z., Poverty, wealth inequality and health among older adults in rural Cambodia.
a) Main question: health determinants among adults living in economically deprived regions,
in particular wealth
c) Main finding: Results confirm difficult economic conditions in rural Cambodia. The lowest
wealth quintile lives in households that own nothing, while the next quintiles are only
slightly better off. Nevertheless, logistic regressions that adjust for other covariates
indicate heterogeneity in health across quintiles that appear qualitatively similar, with the
bottom quintiles reporting the most health problems. An exception is disability, which
presents a U-shaped association. It is difficult to determine mechanisms behind the
relationship using cross-sectional data, but the paper speculates on possible causal
directions, both from wealth to health and vice-versa.
d) Data: 2004 Survey of the Elderly in Cambodia, aged 60 and over
64
e) Dependent variable: symptoms, sensory impairment, functional limitation, disability
f) Independent variable: wealth inequality index
g) Econometric methods: logistic regressions
i) Other note: ADL, elderly, wealth, snapshot
65

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Health inequality literature survey 181211

1. Abasolo, I. and A. Tsuchiya, Exploring social welfare functions and violation of

2. Abasolo, I. and A. Tsuchiya, In response to Indranil Dutta, "Health inequality and

3. Abásolo, I. and A. Tsuchiya, Understanding preference for egalitarian policies in health:

16. Backett-Milburn, K., S. Cunningham-Burley, and J. Davis, Contrasting lives, contrasting

23. Bhalotra, S. and S.B. Rawlings, Intergenerational persistence in health in developing

68. Etilé, F. and C. Milcent, Income-related reporting heterogeneity in self-assessed health:

79. Gerdtham, U.G. and M. Johannesson, Income-related inequality in life-years and

81. Goldman, D. and D. Lakdawalla, Understanding Health Disparities Across Education

91. Hernández-Quevedo, C., et al., Socioeconomic inequalities in health: A comparative

109. Koolman, X. and E. van Doorslaer, On the interpretation of a concentration index of

115. Lauridsen, J., T. Christiansen, and U. Häkkinen, Measuring inequality in self-reported

125. Mackenbach, J.P., Socio-economic health differences in the Netherlands: A review of

133. Martikainen, P., et al., A comparison of socioeconomic differences in physical functioning

163. Singh-Manoux, A. and M. Marmot, Role of socialization in explaining social inequalities in

174. Torsheim, T., et al., Cross-national variation of gender differences in adolescent

189. Wagstaff, A. and E. van Doorslaer, Overall versus-socioeconomic health inequality: A

200. Wilkinson, R.G., Socioeconomic Determinants of Health: Health Inequalities: Relative or

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