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Decomposing world health inequality
Menno Pradhan1, David E Sahn, Stephen D Younger
1World Bank, Washington, DC, USA.
Journal of Health Economics
|February 28, 2003
Summary
Global health inequality is primarily driven by differences within countries, not between them. Standardized height reveals that intra-country variation accounts for most health disparities worldwide.
Area of Science:
- Global Health
- Human Biology
- Socioeconomic Determinants of Health
Background:
- Traditional health indicators like morbidity, mortality, and life expectancy present measurement challenges.
- Monetary variables (income, expenditure) are problematic for cross-temporal and cross-place welfare comparisons.
- Standardized height offers a robust, comparable health metric across diverse populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate global health status inequality.
- To decompose health inequality into within-country and between-country components.
- To utilize standardized height as a novel health indicator.
Main Methods:
- Employed standardized height as the primary health indicator.
- Analyzed data to differentiate between within-country and between-country health disparities.
- Calculated global height inequality metrics.
Main Results:
- Within-country variation is the predominant source of global health inequality.
- Contrary to income inequality research, differences within nations contribute more significantly to health disparities.
- Height inequality analysis provides new insights into global welfare disparities.
Conclusions:
- Global health inequality is largely a function of disparities within nations.
- Standardized height is a valuable tool for assessing global health and welfare.
- Future research should focus on intra-country factors driving health inequality.