Socio-Economic Determinants of Health in Croatia: Insights from Four Cross-Sectional Surveys

The World Health Organization (WHO) sees health as a resource for everyday life, a fundamental human right and, especially important for economists and social scientists, an essential component of the economic and social development of every modern society. Health determinants which could lead to better health outcomes can arise from both the social and economic side. The main goal of this paper is to exploit several cross-sectional socio-economic data sets available in Croatia to examine the extent to which individual health is related to certain demographic and economic determinants. In explaining health determinants, self-assessed health (SAH) was used as a measure of health on the individual level, and the proportional odds model was applied for the ordinal outcome variable. Controlling for age and other socio-demographic characteristics, education was seen as the single most important determinant of better health. Poor health on the individual level is probably highly correlated with low education and lowest income levels. Public policy-makers should be aware that measures targeted at vulnerable population subgroups might be effective at improving health in the population. However, the identification of a causal relationship between health outcome and its determinants is of crucial importance in the design of future policies.