A glossary for health inequalities

Kawachi, Ichiro

doi:10.1136/jech.56.9.647

Cited by 711 publications

(552 citation statements)

References 35 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

490

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The stratification scholar is familiar with the principal mediating factors of the relationship, such as race and neighborhood context. Another key finding is the relationship between income inequality and health, which is, however, less robust and more controversial (Beckfield, 2004;Kawachi, Subramanian, & Almeida-Filho, 2002;Kondo et al, 2009;Leigh et al, 2009;Lynch et al, 2004;Mullahy et al, 2008). In the most comprehensive review to my knowledge, Kondo et al (2009) carry out a metaanalysis of 9 cohort studies (59,509,857 subjects) and 19 cross-sectional studies (1,280,211 subjects), suggesting a "modest excess risk of premature mortality and poor self-rated health" (2009, p. 8) associated with income inequality, and the existence of a threshold effect upon which the negative consequences of inequality are remarkably strong (Gini ≥ 0.3).…”

Section: Income Inequality and Health: Evidence And Debatementioning

confidence: 99%

Recalibrating the spirit level: An analysis of the interaction of income inequality and poverty and its effect on health

Rambotti

2015

Social Science & Medicine

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The publication of The Spirit Level (Wilkinson & Pickett, 2009) marked a paramount moment in the analysis of health and inequality, quickly attracting a remarkable degree of attention, both positive and negative, both in academic and in public discourse. Following at least 20 years of research, the book proposes a simple and powerful argument: inequality per se, more specifically income inequality, is harmful to every aspect of social life. In order to confirm this idea, the authors present a series of bivariate, cross-sectional associations showing comparisons across countries and within the United States. Despite the methodological limitations of this approach, the authors advance causal claims concerning the detrimental effects of income inequality. They also rule out poverty as a plausible alternative explanation, without directly measuring it.Meanwhile, over the last decade stratification scholars have demonstrated the nonlinear effect of economic factors, especially income, on health. The results suggest that a relative approach is best for analyzing dynamics at the top of the income distribution, whereas an absolute approach seems most appropriate for studying the bottom of the distribution.Consistent with this perspective, here I reanalyze data from The Spirit Level, adding a measure of poverty, in order to control the effect of inequality and explore its interaction with poverty. The findings show that inequality and poverty-which I contend are two interdependent but nonetheless distinct phenomena-interact across countries, such that the detrimental effects of inequality are present or stronger in countries with high poverty, and absent or weaker in countries with low poverty; poverty replaces inequality as the favored explanation of health and social ills across states. The new evidence suggests that income distributions are characterized by a complex interplay between inequality and poverty, whose interaction deserves further analysis.

show abstract

Section: Income Inequality and Health: Evidence And Debatementioning

confidence: 99%

Recalibrating the spirit level: An analysis of the interaction of income inequality and poverty and its effect on health

Rambotti

2015

Social Science & Medicine

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Inequity in health is a political concept, with moral implications and committed to social justice. 14 The prevalence of an oral disease may be measured in a certain locality and reveal lower DMFT in children aged 12 years, as compared with teenagers. In this case, there is a health inequality.…”

Section: Health Promotionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For this reason, some authors prefer to consider social injustice as a criterion of the difference between inequality and inequity. 14 There is broad knowledge on social determination, inequality and inequity, 16,17,18,19,20,21 yet there is little or no discussion on inequity and social justice. These should guide a discussion based on the principles of rightness, such as distributives of social justice (principle of right, merit and need) 22 or principles of social justice (guarantee of freedom, equitable equality of opportunities and presence of inequalities only to favor the disfavored).…”

Section: Health Promotionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accumulated knowledge and prevention practices in oral health

Ferreira¹,

Tomita²,

Dalben³

2014

Braz. oral res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

accumulated knowledge and prevention practices in oral health* abstract: This text begins by reflecting on health promotion and equity/ inequity. In health, inequity is understood as a political concept that has moral implications and that is committed to social justice. A discussion follows on some issues regarding the risk and prevention of diseases, still considered a hegemonic practice, and lack of experience in oral healthcare, bearing in mind the concept of vulnerability. The risk is probabilistic and involves the mathematical chances of acquiring a disease in a certain group, whereas vulnerability addresses the potential of acquiring or not acquiring a disease in a certain environment. The need for systematic studies on determinants is stressed, with the ultimate goal of improving health and reducing inequities, and with the concern and political intention of including health equity in governmental policies.

show abstract

“…As desigualdades em saúde referemse às diferenças, em um sentido descritivo, nos níveis de saúde entre grupos socioeconômicos distintos (1,2). Os padrões diferenciados de morbidade e mortalidade em grupos populacionais são determinados por múltiplos aspectos: distribuição desigual dos fatores de exposição e do acesso a bens e serviços de saúde, fragilidade das estruturas sociais de apoio à saúde e insuficiência de investimento em políticas sociais, especialmente em sociedades com grande nível de concentração de renda e baixo nível de coesão social (3,4).…”

unclassified