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IJE Advance Access first published online on June 8, 2007
This version published online on June 18, 2007
International Journal of Epidemiology, doi:10.1093/ije/dym102
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Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association © The Author 2007; all rights reserved.

Commentary: Chasing the elusive null—the story of income inequality and health{dagger}

SV Subramanian* and Ichiro Kawachi

School of Public Health, Harvard University, 677 Huntington Avenue, KRESGE 7th Floor, Boston, MA 02115-6096 USA.

* Corresponding author. Department of Society, Human Development and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, KRESGE 7th Floor, Boston, MA 02115-6096, USA. E-mail: svsubram@hsph.harvard.edu

Accepted 17 April 2007

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.


   Background
 
Backlund and colleagues,1 provide new multilevel evidence of a strong and robust association between US state income inequality and individual mortality in the <65-year-old adult population (relative risks of 1.39 for men and 1.13 for women, Table 2,1), even after conditioning this association on a range of covariates. Yet, this statistically and substantively significant finding is not a part of the study's conclusion. Instead, the null association observed in the elderly population (≥65 years) is emphasized to conclude that ‘this explains why income inequality is not a major driver of mortality trends in the United States because most deaths occur at ages 65 and over.’ In this comment, we evaluate the substantive and empirical aspects of the study, which we believe helps to settle some disagreements in the field. The study, however, is also characteristic, somewhat unfortunately, of the way in which some of the debate on income . . . [Full Text of this Article]


   Discussion
 
The source of ‘mixed’ findings
Repeating the mantra of ‘mixed’ evidence doesn’t make it so
On the lack of state income inequality effect on elderly mortality
On the importance of the study by Backlund and colleagues

   Conclusion
 

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N. Kondo, G. Sembajwe, I. Kawachi, R. M van Dam, S V Subramanian, and Z. Yamagata
Income inequality, mortality, and self rated health: meta-analysis of multilevel studies
BMJ, November 10, 2009; 339(nov10_2): b4471 - b4471.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]