International Journal of Epidemiology 2002;31:546-549
© International Epidemiological Association 2002
Reprints and Reflections |
Commentary: The convoluted story of international studies of inequality and health
Center for Health and Wellbeing, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. E-mail: deaton@princeton.edu
Content and context
Rodgers' paper on income inequality as a determinant of population health starts, like so much else, from Preston's paper on international patterns of income and health, published in the same journal four years previously.1,2 Preston showed that life expectancy increased with income across countries, but at a rate that became progressively lower as income increased— there are diminishing health returns to income—and noted that, if similar relationships between income and health held within countries, a country with a more equal distribution of income would have higher life expectancy, other things being equal. Rodgers tested Preston's conjecture using a sample of 56 (unnamed) developed and developing countries, and found, indeed, that the Gini coefficient of income inequality had a significant negative effect in a (non-linear) relationship between average income and life expectancy (and infant mortality). In the life-expectancy regressions, the coefficient on the Gini coefficient varied with the specification, but was
Data problems: are the results reliable?
Was Rodgers wrong? Where to from here?
References
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  S. Moore Peripherality, income inequality, and life expectancy: revisiting the income inequality hypothesis Int. J. Epidemiol., June 1, 2006; 35(3): 623 - 632. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
S. Ebrahim Social capital: everything or nothing? Int. J. Epidemiol., August 1, 2004; 33(4): 627 - 627. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 S. V. Subramanian and I. Kawachi Income Inequality and Health: What Have We Learned So Far? Epidemiol. Rev., July 1, 2004; 26(1): 78 - 91. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
A. Shmueli Population health and income inequality: new evidence from Israeli time-series analysis Int. J. Epidemiol., April 1, 2004; 33(2): 311 - 317. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 J. A. Macinko, L. Shi, B. Starfield, and J. T. Wulu Jr. Income Inequality and Health: A Critical Review of the Literature Med Care Res Rev, December 1, 2003; 60(4): 407 - 452. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
S. Subramanian and I. Kawachi The association between state income inequality and worse health is not confounded by race Int. J. Epidemiol., December 1, 2003; 32(6): 1022 - 1028. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. Lynch, S. Harper, and G. Davey Smith Commentary: Plugging leaks and repelling boarders--where to next for the SS Income Inequality? Int. J. Epidemiol., December 1, 2003; 32(6): 1029 - 1036. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 N. Pearce and G. Davey Smith Is Social Capital the Key to Inequalities in Health? Am J Public Health, January 1, 2003; 93(1): 122 - 129. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|