Income inequality and self-rated health in US metropolitan areas: a multi-level analysis
1Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health, 715 Albany St., Talbot 2E, Boston, MA 02118, USA. Rptlopez@bu.edu
Abstract:
Income inequality has been found to affect health in a number of international and cross-national studies. Using data from a telephone survey of adults in the United States, this study analyzed the effect of metropolitan level income inequality on self-rated health. It combined individual data from the 2000 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System with metropolitan level income data from the 2000 Census. After controlling for smoking, age, education, Black race, Hispanic ethnicity, sex, household income, and metropolitan area per capita income, this study found that for each 1 point rise in the GINI index (on a hundred point scale) the risk of reporting Fair or Poor self-rated health increased by 4.0% (95% confidence interval 1.6-6.5%). Given that self-rated health is a good predictor of morbidity and mortality, this suggests that metropolitan area income inequality is affecting the health of US adults.
More Related Videos
09:55Bridging the Technology Divide in the COVID-19 Era: Using Virtual Outreach to Expose Middle and High School Students to Imaging Technology
Published on: September 28, 2022
06:55Inverse Probability of Treatment Weighting Propensity Score using the Military Health System Data Repository and National Death Index
Published on: January 8, 2020
Related Concept Videos
Self-Discrepancy and Its Effects
Sources of Self-Esteem III: Social Comparison
Dimensions of Health and Illness
Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Bias in Epidemiological Studies
Stereotype Content Model
