IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i16p2884-d257031.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Income, Self-Rated Health, and Morbidity. A Systematic Review of Longitudinal Studies

Author

Listed:
  • Elena Reche

    (Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany)

  • Hans-Helmut König

    (Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany)

  • André Hajek

    (Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany)

Abstract

If people were asked whether income changes influence self-rated health and morbidity, they would probably answer yes. Indeed, previous studies validated this assumption, but most of them used cross-sectional data and only considered self-rated health as the decisive factor. On the other hand, there are a few studies using longitudinal data, which found a much smaller association between income and self-rated health. In order to give a conclusive overview of the current study situation, this review summarizes and examines studies which use only longitudinal data. In addition to self-rated health, the effects of income on the objective factor of morbidity were also investigated. The review includes a total of 14 papers that use data from seven different countries. It concludes that there is a small, statistically significant, positive impact of increased income on self-rated health, but a negative association between income growth and morbidity. Taking the limitations of confounders, attrition, and selection bias into account, the results may even be insignificant.

Suggested Citation

  • Elena Reche & Hans-Helmut König & André Hajek, 2019. "Income, Self-Rated Health, and Morbidity. A Systematic Review of Longitudinal Studies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-16, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:16:p:2884-:d:257031
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/16/2884/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/16/2884/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Benedicte Apouey & Andrew E. Clark, 2015. "Winning Big but Feeling no Better? The Effect of Lottery Prizes on Physical and Mental Health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(5), pages 516-538, May.
    2. Frijters, Paul & Ulker, Aydogan, 2008. "Robustness in health research: Do differences in health measures, techniques, and time frame matter?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 1626-1644, December.
    3. Paul Contoyannis & Andrew M. Jones & Nigel Rice, 2004. "The dynamics of health in the British Household Panel Survey," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(4), pages 473-503.
    4. Ettner, Susan L., 1996. "New evidence on the relationship between income and health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 67-85, February.
    5. Liao, Y. & McGee, D.L. & Kaufman, J.S. & Cao, G. & Cooper, R.S., 1999. "Socioeconomic status and morbidity in the last years of life," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 89(4), pages 569-572.
    6. Wilkinson, A.V. & Spitz, M.R. & Strom, S.S. & Prokhorov, A.V. & Barcenas, C.H. & Cao, Y. & Saunders, K.C. & Bondy, M.L., 2005. "Effects of nativity, age at migration, and acculturation on smoking among adult Houston residents of Mexican descent," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 95(6), pages 1043-1049.
    7. Halliday, Timothy J., 2007. "Income Volatility and Health," IZA Discussion Papers 3234, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Mustard, Cameron A. & Derksen, Shelley & Berthelot, Jean-marie & Wolfson, Michael & Roos, Leslie L., 1997. "Age-specific education and income gradients in morbidity and mortality in a Canadian province," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 383-397, August.
    9. Jones, Andrew M. & Wildman, John, 2008. "Health, income and relative deprivation: Evidence from the BHPS," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 308-324, March.
    10. Pega, Frank & Carter, Kristie & Kawachi, Ichiro & Davis, Peter & Blakely, Tony, 2014. "The impact of an unconditional tax credit for families on self-rated health in adults: Further evidence from the cohort study of 6900 New Zealanders," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 115-119.
    11. Huisman, Martijn & Kunst, Anton E. & Mackenbach, Johan P., 2003. "Socioeconomic inequalities in morbidity among the elderly; a European overview," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(5), pages 861-873, September.
    12. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-01155641 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Paula K. Lorgelly & Joanne Lindley, 2008. "What is the relationship between income inequality and health? Evidence from the BHPS," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(2), pages 249-265, February.
    14. Frijters, Paul & Haisken-DeNew, John P. & Shields, Michael A., 2005. "The causal effect of income on health: Evidence from German reunification," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 997-1017, September.
    15. Frijters, Paul & Haisken-DeNew, John P. & Shields, Michael A., 2005. "The causal effect of income on health: Evidence from German reunification," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 997-1017, September.
    16. Yunyun Jiang & Haitao Zheng & Tianhao Zhao, 2019. "Socioeconomic Status and Morbidity Rate Inequality in China: Based on NHSS and CHARLS Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-19, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xiaodong Cui & Ching-Ter Chang, 2021. "How Income Influences Health: Decomposition Based on Absolute Income and Relative Income Effects," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(20), pages 1-14, October.
    2. Kathryn M. Cardarelli & Emily DeWitt & Rachel Gillespie & Rachel H. Graham & Heather Norman-Burgdolf & Janet T. Mullins, 2021. "Policy Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Insecurity in Rural America: Evidence from Appalachia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-13, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gunasekara, Fiona Imlach & Carter, Kristie & Blakely, Tony, 2011. "Change in income and change in self-rated health: Systematic review of studies using repeated measures to control for confounding bias," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 193-201, January.
    2. Elena Reche & Hans-Helmut König & André Hajek, 2021. "The Relationship between Income and Morbidity—Longitudinal Findings from the German Ageing Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-14, November.
    3. Deborah J Schofield & Emily J Callander & Rupendra N Shrestha & Megan E Passey & Richard Percival & Simon J Kelly, 2013. "Multiple Chronic Health Conditions and Their Link with Labour Force Participation and Economic Status," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(11), pages 1-1, November.
    4. Au, N. & Johnston, D. W., 2013. "An econometric analysis of self-assessed health: what does it mean and what is it hiding?," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 13/31, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    5. Maite Blázquez Cuesta & Santiago Budría, 2013. "Does income deprivation affect people’s mental well-being?," Working Papers 1312, Banco de España.
    6. Peng Nie & Qing Li & Alan A. Cohen & Alfonso Sousa-Poza, 2021. "In search of China’s income-health gradient: a biomarker-based analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(48), pages 5599-5618, October.
    7. Maite Blázquez & Elena Cottini & Ainhoa Herrarte, 2014. "The socioeconomic gradient in health: how important is material deprivation?," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 12(2), pages 239-264, June.
    8. Au, Nicole & Johnston, David W., 2014. "Self-assessed health: What does it mean and what does it hide?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 21-28.
    9. Alexander Silbersdorff & Julia Lynch & Stephan Klasen & Thomas Kneib, 2017. "Reconsidering the Income-Illness Relationship using Distributional Regression: An Application to Germany," Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers 231, Courant Research Centre PEG.
    10. Fu-Min Tseng & Dennis James Petrie, 2014. "The Implications for Health, Depression, and Life Satisfaction from a Permanent Increase in Income for the Disadvantaged Elderly: Evidence from Taiwan," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 72(3), pages 311-336, September.
    11. Cuesta, Maite Blázquez & Budría, Santiago, 2015. "Income deprivation and mental well-being: The role of non-cognitive skills," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 16-28.
    12. Parra-Mujica, F. & Robson, M. & Cookson, R., 2021. "Socioeconomic Health Inequalities: Differences Between and Within Individuals," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 21/15, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    13. Ozdamar, Oznur & Giovanis, Eleftherios, 2016. "Being Healthy in Turkey: A Pseudo-Panel Data Analysis," MPRA Paper 95838, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Hernández-Quevedo, Cristina & Jones, Andrew M. & Rice, Nigel, 2008. "Persistence in health limitations: A European comparative analysis," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 1472-1488, December.
    15. Sirven, Nicolas, 2006. "Endogenous social capital and self-rated health: Cross-sectional data from rural areas of Madagascar," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 1489-1502, September.
    16. Munford, Luke A. & Fichera, Eleonora & Sutton, Matt, 2020. "Is owning your home good for your health? Evidence from exogenous variations in subsidies in England," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    17. Fernández-Val, Iván & Savchenko, Yevgeniya & Vella, Francis, 2017. "Evaluating the role of income, state dependence and individual specific heterogeneity in the determination of subjective health assessments," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 85-98.
    18. Grace Lordan & Eliana Jimenez Soto & Richard P. C. Brown & Ignacio Correa‐Valez, 2012. "Socioeconomic status and health outcomes in a developing country," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(2), pages 178-186, February.
    19. Owen O'Donnell & Eddy Van Doorslaer & Tom Van Ourti, 2013. "Health and Inequality," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-170/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    20. Broughel, James & Viscusi, Kip, 2017. "Death by Regulation: How Regulations Can Increase Mortality Risk," Working Papers 06864, George Mason University, Mercatus Center.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:16:p:2884-:d:257031. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.