[Pophealth] another study linking income distribution & health

[Stephen Bezruchka]

The following study is the first to use 2000 census data in the US.

Ram, R. (2005). ÒIncome inequality, poverty, and population health: 
Evidence from recent data for the United States.Ó Social Science & 
Medicine 61(12): 2568-2576.

In this study, state-level US data for the years 2000 and 1990 are used to 
provide additional evidence on the roles of income inequality and poverty 
in population health. Five main points are noted. First, contrary to the 
suggestion made in several recent studies, the income inequality parameter 
is observed to be quite robust and carries statistical significance in 
mortality equations estimated from several observation sets and a fairly 
wide variety of specificational choices. Second, the evidence does not 
indicate that significance of income inequality is lost when education 
variables are included. Third, similarly, the income inequality parameter 
shows significance when a race variable is added, and also when both race 
and urbanization terms are entered. Fourth, while poverty is seen to have 
some mortality-increasing consequence, the role of income inequality 
appears stronger. Fifth, income inequality retains statistical 
significance when a quadratic income term is added and also if the log-log 
version of a fairly inclusive model is estimated. I therefore suggest that 
the recent skepticism articulated by several scholars in regard to the 
robustness of the income inequality parameters in mortality equations 
estimated from the US data should be reconsidered.

  There is a review paper by Wilkinson & Pickett not yet published at the 
Social Science and Medicine website: Income inequality and population 
health: A review and explanation of the evidenceÊ

at
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6VBF-4H9YCDT-1/2/79ee1e982dece503f84f4fb5e7374a9c

There is confidence in making a tight case here.  But much work is needed 
to get people thinking of limiting the actions of the Hood Robins at work 
here.

STephen