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On the empirical association between poor health and low socioeconomic status at old age

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  • Christian Salas

Abstract

Epidemiologic studies using mortality rates as indicators of health fail to find any meaningful association between poor health and low socioeconomic status in older age‐groups, whereas economic studies using self‐assessed health consistently find a significant positive correlation, even after controlling for self‐reporting errors. Such contradictory results have not been reported for working age individuals. A simple explanation might be that the elderly samples on which the epidemiologic and economic studies are based come from different populations. However, this paper shows that similar contradictory results are obtained even when the same samples are used, simply by switching between self‐assessed health and mortality as health indicators. An alternative explanation is proposed, namely that these health indicators yield different results because they relate to different ranges of the latent health variable at old age. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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  • Christian Salas, 2002. "On the empirical association between poor health and low socioeconomic status at old age," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(3), pages 207-220, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:11:y:2002:i:3:p:207-220
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.663
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    2. Ianina Rossi & Fernanda Tellechea & Fiorella Tramontin & Patricia Triunfo, 2007. "El estado de salud de los uruguayos," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 34(1 Year 20), pages 73-96, June.
    3. 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.
    4. Elisabetta Santarelli & Anna De Pascale, "undated". "Economic, housing conditions and health of old people in Italy: evidence from EU-SILC," Working Papers 99/12, Sapienza University of Rome, Metodi e Modelli per l'Economia, il Territorio e la Finanza MEMOTEF.
    5. David Cantarero & Marta Pascual, 2005. "Regional Differences In Health In Spain - An Empirical Analysis," ERSA conference papers ersa05p551, European Regional Science Association.
    6. Ozdamar, Oznur & Giovanis, Eleftherios, 2016. "Being Healthy in Turkey: A Pseudo-Panel Data Analysis," MPRA Paper 95838, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Giovanis, Eleftherios & Ozdamar, Oznur, 2014. "The effects of Air Pollution on Health Status in Great Britain," MPRA Paper 59988, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Andrew M. Jones & Nigel Rice & Paul Contoyannis, 2012. "The Dynamics of Health," Chapters, in: Andrew M. Jones (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Health Economics, Second Edition, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:9:y:2005:i:9:p:1-17 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. 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.
    11. Cristina Hernandez-Quevedo & Andrew M Jones & Nigel Rice, "undated". "Reporting Bias and Heterogeneity in Self-Assessed Health. Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey," Discussion Papers 04/18, Department of Economics, University of York.
    12. Keith A. Bender & Steffen Habermalz, 2008. "Are There Differences in the Health– Socio‐economic Status Relationship over the Life Cycle? Evidence from Germany," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 22(1), pages 107-125, March.
    13. David Cantarero & Marta Pascual, 2005. "Socio-Economic Status And Health: Evidence From The Echp," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 9(9), pages 1-17.
    14. Antonio J. Trujillo & John A. Vernon & Laura Rodriguez Wong & Gustavo Angeles, 2005. "Race and Health Disparities Among Seniors in Urban Areas in Brazil," NBER Working Papers 11690, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. M. Solaiman Miah & Virginia Wilcox-Gok, 2007. "Do the sick retire early? Chronic illness, asset accumulation and early retirement," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(15), pages 1921-1936.
    16. 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.
    17. Andrew M. Jones & Xander Koolman & Nigel Rice, 2006. "Health‐related non‐response in the British Household Panel Survey and European Community Household Panel: using inverse‐probability‐weighted estimators in non‐linear models," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 169(3), pages 543-569, July.
    18. Brown, Paul & Guy, Melody & Broad, Joanna, 2005. "Individual socio-economic status, community socio-economic status and stroke in New Zealand: A case control study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(6), pages 1174-1188, September.
    19. Joan Costa‐Font & Frank A. Cowell & Belen Saenz de Miera, 2021. "Measuring pure health inequality and mobility during a health insurance expansion: Evidence from Mexico," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(8), pages 1833-1848, August.
    20. Máximo Rossi & Patricia Triunfo, 2004. "El Estado de Salud del Adulto Mayor en Uruguay," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 1404, Department of Economics - dECON.
    21. Katharina Hauck & Aki Tsuchiya, 2010. "Health mobility: implications for efficiency and equity in priority setting," Monash Econometrics and Business Statistics Working Papers 6/10, Monash University, Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics.
    22. Li Donni, Paolo, 2019. "The unobserved pattern of material hardship and health among older Americans," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 31-42.
    23. Olga Kiuila & Peter Mieszkowski, 2007. "The effects of income, education and age on health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(8), pages 781-798, August.
    24. Costa-Font, Joan & Hernández-Quevedo, Cristina, 2012. "Measuring inequalities in health: What do we know? What do we need to know?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(2), pages 195-206.
    25. Maite Blázquez Cuesta & Santiago Budría, 2013. "Does income deprivation affect people’s mental well-being?," Working Papers 1312, Banco de España.

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