IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/eurpop/v31y2015i4p445-466.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ethnic Health Inequalities in Unequal Societies: Morbidity Gaps Between Palestinians and Jews in Israel

Author

Listed:
  • Ameed Saabneh

Abstract

Health inequalities between ethnic groups are found in many multiethnic societies. A widely used model for explaining these inequalities posits that social inequalities among ethnic groups account for a large portion of differences in their health statuses. By analyzing gaps in morbidity in Israel between the Palestinian minority and the Jewish majority, this study applies this model in a context characterized by large social inequalities. Propensity score matching is applied to form two ethnic groups, minority and majority, with similar social positions, using data from the Israel Health Survey 1999–2000. The matched groups are then compared in prevalence of two chronic diseases: diabetes and heart disease. In addition, reduction in the ethnic health gap is decomposed into two components: size of social inequalities between the two groups and strength of the socioeconomic gradient of health among the majority group. Results show that social inequality may only partially account for higher morbidity among the Palestinian minority. Reduction in the female gap was higher than that in the male gap, which reflects larger social inequalities between females in addition to a stronger female socioeconomic gradient of health. Results also show that matching was not completely successful in forming comparable minority and majority groups, which indicates that in societies characterized by high inequality there is a methodological limitation in estimating the role of social inequalities in explaining ethnic health gaps. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Ameed Saabneh, 2015. "Ethnic Health Inequalities in Unequal Societies: Morbidity Gaps Between Palestinians and Jews in Israel," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 31(4), pages 445-466, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eurpop:v:31:y:2015:i:4:p:445-466
    DOI: 10.1007/s10680-015-9349-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10680-015-9349-x
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10680-015-9349-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James Smith, 2004. "Unravelling the SES health connection," IFS Working Papers W04/02, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    2. Gross, Revital & Rosen, Bruce & Shirom, Arie, 2001. "Reforming the Israeli health system: findings of a 3-year evaluation," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 1-20, April.
    3. Jessica Ho & Irma Elo, 2013. "The Contribution of Smoking to Black-White Differences in U.S. Mortality," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(2), pages 545-568, April.
    4. Manor, O. & Eisenbach, Z. & Peritz, E. & Friedlander, Y., 1999. "Mortality differentials among Israeli men," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 89(12), pages 1807-1813.
    5. Mackenbach, Johan P. & Kulhánová, Ivana & Bopp, Matthias & Deboosere, Patrick & Eikemo, Terje A. & Hoffmann, Rasmus & Kulik, Margarete C. & Leinsalu, Mall & Martikainen, Pekka & Menvielle, Gwenn & Reg, 2015. "Variations in the relation between education and cause-specific mortality in 19 European populations: A test of the “fundamental causes” theory of social inequalities in health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 51-62.
    6. Goldman, Dana & Smith, James P., 2011. "The increasing value of education to health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(10), pages 1728-1737, May.
    7. Elnekave, Eldad & Gross, Revital, 2004. "The healthcare experiences of Arab Israeli women in a reformed healthcare system," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 101-116, July.
    8. Chernichovsky, Dov & Anson, Jon, 2005. "The Jewish-Arab divide in life expectancy in Israel," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 123-137, March.
    9. Williams, David R. & Gonzalez, Hector M. & Williams, Stacey & Mohammed, Selina A. & Moomal, Hashim & Stein, Dan J., 2008. "Perceived discrimination, race and health in South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 441-452, August.
    10. Smith, G.D., 2000. "Learning to live with complexity: Ethnicity, socioeconomic position, and health in Britain and the United States," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 90(11), pages 1694-1698.
    11. Shuval, Judith T., 1990. "Health in Israel: Patterns of equality and inequality," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 291-303, January.
    12. Sarah Burgard, 2002. "Does race matter? Children’s height in Brazil and South Africa," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 39(4), pages 763-790, November.
    13. Rosenbaum, Paul R., 2010. "Design Sensitivity and Efficiency in Observational Studies," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 105(490), pages 692-702.
    14. Baron-Epel, Orna & Kaplan, Giora, 2009. "Can subjective and objective socioeconomic status explain minority health disparities in Israel?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 1460-1467, November.
    15. Nazroo, J.Y., 2003. "The structuring of ethnic inequalities in health: Economic position, racial discrimination, and racism," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(2), pages 277-284.
    16. Farmer, Melissa M. & Ferraro, Kenneth F., 2005. "Are racial disparities in health conditional on socioeconomic status?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 191-204, January.
    17. Harris, Ricci & Tobias, Martin & Jeffreys, Mona & Waldegrave, Kiri & Karlsen, Saffron & Nazroo, James, 2006. "Racism and health: The relationship between experience of racial discrimination and health in New Zealand," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 1428-1441, September.
    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. Semyonov-Tal, Keren, 2024. "Responsiveness of inpatient care and provision of dignity: Insights from a patient experience survey in Israel," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    2. Jabareen, Raifa & Zlotnick, Cheryl, 2023. "The personal, local and global influences on youth sexual behaviors in a traditional society," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).

    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. Harris, Ricci & Cormack, Donna & Tobias, Martin & Yeh, Li-Chia & Talamaivao, Natalie & Minster, Joanna & Timutimu, Roimata, 2012. "The pervasive effects of racism: Experiences of racial discrimination in New Zealand over time and associations with multiple health domains," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(3), pages 408-415.
    2. Floor V.A. Van Oort & Jan Van der Ende & Alfons A.M. Crijnen & Frank C. Verhulst & Johan P. Mackenbach & Inez M.A. Joung, 2007. "Ethnic Disparities in Mental Health and Educational Attainment: Comparing Migrant and Native Children," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 53(6), pages 514-525, November.
    3. Nancy Krieger & Pamela D Waterman & Anna Kosheleva & Jarvis T Chen & Dana R Carney & Kevin W Smith & Gary G Bennett & David R Williams & Elmer Freeman & Beverley Russell & Gisele Thornhill & Kristin M, 2011. "Exposing Racial Discrimination: Implicit & Explicit Measures–The My Body, My Story Study of 1005 US-Born Black & White Community Health Center Members," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(11), pages 1-24, November.
    4. Williams, David R. & Gonzalez, Hector M. & Williams, Stacey & Mohammed, Selina A. & Moomal, Hashim & Stein, Dan J., 2008. "Perceived discrimination, race and health in South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 441-452, August.
    5. Ma, Yuanyuan & Nolan, Anne & Smith, James P., 2018. "The value of education to health: Evidence from Ireland," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 14-25.
    6. Cecilie Dinesen & Signe Nielsen & Laust Mortensen & Allan Krasnik, 2011. "Inequality in self-rated health among immigrants, their descendants and ethnic Danes: examining the role of socioeconomic position," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 56(5), pages 503-514, October.
    7. Govert E. Bijwaard & Mikko Myrskylä & Per Tynelius & Finn Rasmussen, 2017. "Educational gain in cause-specific mortality: accounting for confounders," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2017-003, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    8. Govert E. Bijwaard & Per Tynelius & Mikko Myrskylä, 2019. "Education, cognitive ability, and cause-specific mortality: A structural approach," Population Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 73(2), pages 217-232, May.
    9. Zilanawala, Afshin & Sacker, Amanda & Nazroo, James & Kelly, Yvonne, 2015. "Ethnic differences in children's socioemotional difficulties: Findings from the Millennium Cohort Study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 95-106.
    10. Malmusi, Davide & Borrell, Carme & Benach, Joan, 2010. "Migration-related health inequalities: Showing the complex interactions between gender, social class and place of origin," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(9), pages 1610-1619, November.
    11. Colen, Cynthia G. & Ramey, David M. & Cooksey, Elizabeth C. & Williams, David R., 2018. "Racial disparities in health among nonpoor African Americans and Hispanics: The role of acute and chronic discrimination," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 167-180.
    12. Kelaher, M. & Paul, Sheila & Lambert, Helen & Ahmad, Waqar & Paradies, Yin & Davey Smith, George, 2008. "Discrimination and health in an English study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(7), pages 1627-1636, April.
    13. Baker, Jessica & Mitchell, Richard & Pell, Jill, 2013. "Cross-sectional study of ethnic differences in the utility of area deprivation measures to target socioeconomically deprived individuals," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 27-31.
    14. Divya Malhotra, 2017. "Cultural Concordance and Health Accessibility Differentials in Israel: Field Survey in Tel Aviv," Contemporary Review of the Middle East, , vol. 4(4), pages 356-384, December.
    15. Signe Smith Nielsen & Nana Folmann Hempler & Allan Krasnik, 2013. "Issues to Consider When Measuring and Applying Socioeconomic Position Quantitatively in Immigrant Health Research," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-12, November.
    16. Diane Coffey & Ashwini Deshpande & Jeffrey Hammer & Dean Spears, 2019. "Local Social Inequality, Economic Inequality, and Disparities in Child Height in India," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(4), pages 1427-1452, August.
    17. Karsten Hank & Hendrik Jürges & Jürgen Schupp & Gert G. Wagner, 2006. "Die Messung der Greifkraft als objektives Gesundheitsmaß in sozialwissenschaftlichen Bevölkerungsumfragen: erhebungsmethodische und inhaltliche Befunde auf der Basis von SHARE und SOEP," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 577, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    18. Galama, Titus & Kapteyn, Arie, 2011. "Grossman’s missing health threshold," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 1044-1056.
    19. Jon Anson, 2010. "Beyond Material Explanations: Family Solidarity and Mortality, a Small Area‐level Analysis," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 36(1), pages 27-45, March.
    20. Irizar, Patricia & Kapadia, Dharmi & Amele, Sarah & Bécares, Laia & Divall, Pip & Katikireddi, Srinivasa Vittal & Kibuchi, Eliud & Kneale, Dylan & McCabe, Ronan & Nazroo, James & Nellums, Laura B. & T, 2023. "Pathways to ethnic inequalities in COVID-19 health outcomes in the United Kingdom: A systematic map," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 329(C).

    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:spr:eurpop:v:31:y:2015:i:4:p:445-466. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.