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Selective migration from deprived areas in Northern Ireland and the spatial distribution of inequalities: implications for monitoring health and inequalities in health

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  • O'Reilly, Dermot
  • Stevenson, Michael

Abstract

Much of the evidence suggesting that inequalities in health have been increasing over the last two decades has come from studies that compared the changes in relative health status of areas over time. Such studies ignore the movement of people between areas. This paper examines the population movement between small areas in Northern Ireland in the year prior to the 1991 census as well as the geographical distribution of migrants to Northern Ireland over the same period. It shows that deprived areas tended to become depopulated and that those who left these areas were the more affluent residents. While immigrants differed a little from the indigenous population, the overall effect of their distribution would be to maintain the geographical socio-economic status quo. The selective movement of people between areas would result in the distribution of health and ill-health becoming more polarized, i.e. produce a picture of widening inequalities between areas even though the distribution between individuals is unchanged. These processes suggest potential significant problems with the area-based approaches to monitoring health and inequalities in health.

Suggested Citation

  • O'Reilly, Dermot & Stevenson, Michael, 2003. "Selective migration from deprived areas in Northern Ireland and the spatial distribution of inequalities: implications for monitoring health and inequalities in health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(8), pages 1455-1462, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:57:y:2003:i:8:p:1455-1462
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Buzzelli, Michael & Su, Jason, 2006. "Multi-level modelling in health research: A caution and rejoinder on temporally mismatched data," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(5), pages 1215-1218, March.
    2. Brown, Denise & Leyland, Alastair H., 2010. "Scottish mortality rates 2000-2002 by deprivation and small area population mobility," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(11), pages 1951-1957, December.
    3. Connolly, Sheelah & O'Reilly, Dermot & Rosato, Michael, 2007. "Increasing inequalities in health: Is it an artefact caused by the selective movement of people?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(10), pages 2008-2015, May.
    4. Brian Robson & Kitty Lymperopoulou & Alasdair Rae, 2008. "People on the Move: Exploring the Functional Roles of Deprived Neighbourhoods," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 40(11), pages 2693-2714, November.
    5. Riva, Mylène & Curtis, Sarah & Norman, Paul, 2011. "Residential mobility within England and urban–rural inequalities in mortality," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(12), pages 1698-1706.
    6. Connolly, Sheelah & O'Reilly, Dermot, 2007. "The contribution of migration to changes in the distribution of health over time: Five-year follow-up study in Northern Ireland," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(5), pages 1004-1011, September.

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