Cross-Temporal and Cross-National Poverty and Mortality Rates among Developed Countries

Abstract

A prime objective of welfare state activities is to take action to enhance population health and to decrease mortality risks. For several centuries, poverty has been seen as a key social risk factor in these respects. Consequently, the fight against poverty has historically been at the forefront of public health and social policy. The relationship between relative poverty rates and population health indicators is less self-evident, notwithstanding the obvious similarity to the debated topic of the relationship between population health and income inequality. In this study we undertake a comparative analysis of the relationship between relative poverty and mortality across 26 countries over time, with pooled cross-sectional time series analysis. We utilize data from the Luxembourg Income Study to construct age-specific poverty rates across countries and time covering the period from around 1980 to 2005, merged with data on age- and gender-specific mortality data from the Human Mortality Database. Our results suggest not only an impact of relative poverty but also clear differences by welfare regime that partly goes beyond the well-known differences in poverty rates between welfare regimes.

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

“…The evidence here relates to a body of literature that shows the importance of poverty also in the richer world (Ludwig et al, 2011(Ludwig et al, , 2012Fritzell et al, 2013), and suggests that, in order to improve health and ameliorate social ills, raising the living standard is still a crucial task in the more affluent countries, not just in the poorer ones as Wilkinson and Pickett (2009) suggest. Poverty still matters, and sometimes it matters more than inequality.…”

“…At a different level of analysis, Fritzell et al (2013) look at the role of relative poverty over time across 26 countries (affluent countries and some post-socialist Eastern European countries), and find that poverty has a detrimental effect on death risk also in affluent countries.…”

Absolute or relative? A comparative analysis of the relationship between poverty and mortality

“…Earlier research suggests that in affluent countries, the level of relative poverty seems important for mortality (Fritzell et al 2013). In this study, in addition to relative poverty, we used a fixed poverty rate -the American poverty threshold -to examine the association between poverty and mortality.…”

“…We study the cross-temporal and cross-national relationship between poverty rates and mortality rates in 30 nations. Findings from earlier research comparing the consequences of poverty in affluent countries have indeed suggested that relative poverty is associated with mortality rates (Fritzell et al 2013).…”

“…This association not only distinguishes the poor from the non-poor but also spans the entire social hierarchy and produces what is nowadays labeled "the social gradient in health" (Marmot 2004). For a more elaborated discussion of the association on relative poverty and health, see (Fritzell et al 2013). …”