Global variations in health: Evaluating Wilkinson's income inequality hypothesis using the World Values Survey

Min Hua Jen*, Kelvyn Jones, Ron Johnston

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

73 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This international comparative study analyses individual-level data derived from the World Values Survey to evaluate Wilkinson's [(1996). Unhealthy societies: The afflictions of inequality. London: Routledge; (1998). Mortality and distribution of income. Low relative income affects mortality [letter; comment]. British Medical Journal, 316, 1611-1612] income inequality hypothesis regarding variations in health status. Random-coefficient, multilevel modelling provides a direct test of Wilkinson's hypothesis using micro-data on individuals and macro-data on income inequalities analysed simultaneously. This overcomes the ecological fallacy that has troubled previous research into links between individual self-rated health, individual income, country income and income inequality data. Logic regression analysis reveals that there are substantial differences between countries in self-rated health after taking account of age and gender, and individual income has a clear effect in that poorer people report experiencing worse health. The Wilkinson hypothesis is not supported, however, since there is no significant relationship between health and income inequality when individual factors are taken into account. Substantial differences between countries remain even after taking account of micro- and macro-variables; in particular the former communist countries report high levels of poor health.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)643-653
Number of pages11
JournalSocial Science and Medicine
Volume68
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2009

Keywords

  • Health inequalities
  • Household-income inequality estimation
  • Income inequality hypothesis
  • Multilevel modelling
  • Self-rated health
  • World Values Survey

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