Income inequality and population health

doi:10.1136/bmj.324.7328.1

BMJ 2002;324:1-2 ( 5 January )

Editorials

Income inequality and population health

Evidence favouring a negative correlation between income inequality and life expectancy has disappeared

Papers pp 13, 16, 20, 23

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

In 1992, the BMJ published a now famous paper showing a strong negative correlation between income inequality and life expectancy.Among nine Western industrialised countries those which had lessincome inequality seemed to have higher life expectancy.¹ Afew years later this was replicated in analyses looking at incomeinequality and mortality in states within the United States $---$ analyseswhich seemed more secure because of having more and better qualitydata. ² ³ These findings, which suggested that income inequalityis bad for the health of the whole population and not only forthose with the lowest incomes, were seen to have important implications.Reducing the inequality would be in everyone's interest, includingthose with higherincomes.

A novel area of research was born, adding new perspectives to conventional studies of health inequalities. These had tendedto focus on relations between socioeconomic factors and healthof the individual, while the findings on income . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

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