The global impact of income inequality on health by age: an observational study

doi:10.1136/bmj.39349.507315.DE

BMJ 2007;335:873 (27 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.39349.507315.DE (published 22 October 2007)

Research

The global impact of income inequality on health by age: an observational study

Danny Dorling, professor of human geography¹, Richard Mitchell, reader in health inequalities², Jamie Pearce, co-director³

¹ Department of Geography, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, ² Public Health and Health Policy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8RZ, ³ GeoHealth Laboratory, Department of Geography, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8020, New Zealand

Correspondence to: D Dorling Daniel.dorling{at}sheffield.ac.uk

Objectives To explore whether the apparent impact of incomeinequality on health, which has been shown for wealthier nations,is replicated worldwide, and whether the impact varies by age.

Design Observational study.

Setting 126 countries of the world for which complete data onincome inequality and mortality by age and sex were availablearound the year 2002 (including 94.4% of world human population).

Data sources Data on mortality were from the World Health Organizationand income data were taken from the annual reports of the UnitedNations Development Programme.

Main outcome measures Mortality in 5-year age bands for eachsex by income inequality and income level.

Results At ages 15-29 and 25-39 variations in income inequalityseem more closely correlated with mortality worldwide than dovariations in material wealth. This relation is especially strongamong the poorest countries in Africa. Mortality is higher fora given level of overall income in more unequal nations.

Conclusions Income inequality seems to have an influence worldwide,especially for younger adults. Social inequality seems to havea universal negative impact on health.

Add to CiteULike CiteULike Add to Complore Complore Add to Connotea Connotea Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us Add to Digg Digg Add to Reddit Reddit Add to Technorati Technorati What's this?

Make health inequality history: Trish Groves
BMJ 2007 335: 0. [Extract] [Full Text]

Equitable access to health care: James K Tumwine
BMJ 2007 335: 833-834. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Relation between income inequality and mortality in Canada and in the United States: cross sectional assessment using census data and vital statistics: Nancy A Ross, Michael C Wolfson, James R Dunn, Jean-Marie Berthelot, George A Kaplan, and John W Lynch
BMJ 2000 320: 898-902. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Economic transition and changing relation between income inequality and mortality in Taiwan: regression analysis: Tung-liang Chiang
BMJ 1999 319: 1162-1165. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Inequality in income and mortality in the United States: analysis of mortality and potential pathways: George A Kaplan, Elsie R Pamuk, John W Lynch, Richard D Cohen, and Jennifer L Balfour
BMJ 1996 312: 999-1003. [Abstract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

Tumwine, J. K (2007). Equitable access to health care. BMJ 335: 833-834 [Full text]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Inequality, exploitation and damaging health: Dirk Van Duppen
bmj.com, 28 Oct 2007 [Full text]
The Less Privileged Poor Have Poor Access To Health Care System Than The Rich.: Robert James
bmj.com, 7 Nov 2007 [Full text]
Social solidarity can compensate for income inequalities: the case of the public Italian healthcare service.: Giampiero Favato
bmj.com, 11 Nov 2007 [Full text]
The problem of aggregated analysis: the need for a multilevel methodology in evaluating the relative income hypothesis: Min Hua Jen, et al.
bmj.com, 19 Nov 2007 [Full text]