Epidemiol Rev 2004;26:78-91
© 2004 by the Oxford University Press
Income Inequality and Health: What Have We Learned So Far?
From the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
Correspondence to Dr. S. V. Subramanian, Department of Society, Human Development, and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Kresge 7th Floor, Boston, MA 02115-6096 (e-mail: svsubram@hsph.harvard.edu).
Received for publication November 3, 2003; accepted for publication December 19, 2003.
Abbreviation: OR, odds ratio.
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
 |
INTRODUCTION |
|---|
Many developed countries have experienced a sharp rise in income inequality during the past three decades, and the United States is no exception (1). For example, the average annual salary in America in inflation-adjusted 1998 dollars increased from $32,522 in 1970 to $35,864 in 1999, that is, a modest 10 percent increase over three decades. By contrast over the same period, the average annual compensation of the top 100 chief executive officers rose from $1.3 million (or 39 times the pay of an average worker) to $37.5 million (or more than 1,000 times the pay of an average worker) (2). Recent trends in wealth inequality have been equally noteworthy. The net worth of families in the top decile rose by 69 percent, to $833,600 in 2001, from $493,400 in 1998. By contrast over the same period, the net worth of families in the lowest fifth of
|
THE MEASUREMENT OF INCOME INEQUALITY |
|---|
|
INCOME INEQUALITY AND HEALTH: THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS |
|---|
|
THE MULTILEVEL NATURE OF THE INCOME INEQUALITY HYPOTHESIS |
|---|
|
MULTILEVEL STUDIES OF INCOME INEQUALITY AND HEALTH: WHAT DOES THE EVIDENCE TELL US? |
|---|
|
INCOME INEQUALITY AND HEALTH: CURRENT DEBATES |
|---|
Confounding by individual income
Confounding by educational attainment
Confounding by racial composition
Confounding by regional effects
Lag effects of income inequality
|
INCOME INEQUALITY AND HEALTH: AN AGENDA FOR FUTURE RESEARCH |
|---|
Teasing out income inequality, relative income, and relative rank
Testing "cross-level interactions": who pays the price of income inequality?
Pathways linking income inequality to health
The importance of geographic scale
Need for longitudinal studies
Modeling choices and interpreting multilevel coefficients
|
CONCLUSION |
|---|
|
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
|---|
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  D. A. I. Groffen, H. Bosma, M. van den Akker, G. I. J. M. Kempen, and J. Th. M. van Eijk Material deprivation and health-related dysfunction in older Dutch people: findings from the SMILE study Eur J Public Health, June 1, 2008; 18(3): 258 - 263. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 R. G. Wilkinson and K. E. Pickett Income Inequality and Socioeconomic Gradients in Mortality Am J Public Health, April 1, 2008; 98(4): 699 - 704. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 E Regidor, J L Gutierrez-Fisac, E Ronda, M E Calle, D Martinez, and V Dominguez Impact of cumulative area-based adverse socioeconomic environment on body mass index and overweight J. Epidemiol. Community Health, March 1, 2008; 62(3): 231 - 238. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 F. Smyth Medical geography: understanding health inequalities Progress in Human Geography, February 1, 2008; 32(1): 119 - 127. [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
B. Starfield and A.-E. Birn Income redistribution is not enough: income inequality, social welfare programs, and achieving equity in health J. Epidemiol. Community Health, December 1, 2007; 61(12): 1038 - 1041. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
M. Bobak, M. Murphy, R. Rose, and M. Marmot Societal characteristics and health in the former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union: a multilevel analysis J. Epidemiol. Community Health, November 1, 2007; 61(11): 990 - 996. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
F. G De Maio Income inequality measures J. Epidemiol. Community Health, October 1, 2007; 61(10): 849 - 852. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
S V Subramanian, I. Kawachi, and G. D. Smith Income inequality and the double burden of under- and overnutrition in India J. Epidemiol. Community Health, September 1, 2007; 61(9): 802 - 809. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 S. Subramanian and I. Kawachi Commentary: Chasing the elusive null--the story of income inequality and health Int. J. Epidemiol., June 18, 2007; (2007) dym102v2. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
E. Backlund, G. Rowe, J. Lynch, M. C Wolfson, G. A Kaplan, and P. D Sorlie Income inequality and mortality: a multilevel prospective study of 521 248 individuals in 50 US states Int. J. Epidemiol., June 1, 2007; 36(3): 590 - 596. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
G. Henriksson, P. Allebeck, G. R. Weitoft, and D. Thelle Are manual workers at higher risk of death than non-manual employees when living in Swedish municipalities with higher income inequality? Eur J Public Health, April 1, 2007; 17(2): 139 - 144. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. I. Elstad, E. Dahl, and D. Hofoss Associations between relative income and mortality in Norway: a register-based study Eur J Public Health, December 1, 2006; 16(6): 640 - 644. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 A. J. Thomas, L. E. Eberly, G. Davey Smith, J. D. Neaton, and for the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (M ZIP-Code-based versus Tract-based Income Measures as Long-Term Risk-adjusted Mortality Predictors Am. J. Epidemiol., September 15, 2006; 164(6): 586 - 590. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
T. Blakely, J. Atkinson, V. Ivory, S. Collings, J. Wilton, and P. Howden-Chapman No association of neighbourhood volunteerism with mortality in New Zealand: a national multilevel cohort study. Int. J. Epidemiol., August 1, 2006; 35(4): 981 - 989. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
I. Kawachi Commentary: Social capital and health: making the connections one step at a time Int. J. Epidemiol., August 1, 2006; 35(4): 989 - 993. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 G. Henriksson, P. Allebeck, G. Ringback Weitoft, and D. Thelle Income distribution and mortality: Implications from a comparison of individual-level analysis and multilevel analysis with Swedish data Scand J Public Health, May 1, 2006; 34(3): 287 - 294. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
R. Eckersley Is modern Western culture a health hazard? Int. J. Epidemiol., April 1, 2006; 35(2): 252 - 258. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 L. A. Newman, K. A. Griffith, I. Jatoi, M. S. Simon, J. P. Crowe, and G. A. Colditz Meta-Analysis of Survival in African American and White American Patients With Breast Cancer: Ethnicity Compared With Socioeconomic Status J. Clin. Oncol., March 20, 2006; 24(9): 1342 - 1349. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
T. Torsheim, C. Currie, W. Boyce, and O. Samdal Country material distribution and adolescents' perceived health: multilevel study of adolescents in 27 countries J. Epidemiol. Community Health, February 1, 2006; 60(2): 156 - 161. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
S. Galea and J. Ahern Distribution of Education and Population Health: An Ecological Analysis of New York City Neighborhoods Am J Public Health, December 1, 2005; 95(12): 2198 - 2205. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
K. E Pickett, S. Kelly, E. Brunner, T. Lobstein, and R. G Wilkinson Wider income gaps, wider waistbands? An ecological study of obesity and income inequality J. Epidemiol. Community Health, August 1, 2005; 59(8): 670 - 674. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. Lynch, S. Harper, G. A. Kaplan, and G. Davey Smith Associations Between Income Inequality and Mortality Among US States: The Importance of Time Period and Source of Income Data Am J Public Health, August 1, 2005; 95(8): 1424 - 1430. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 A. Drewnowski and N. Darmon The economics of obesity: dietary energy density and energy cost Am. J. Clinical Nutrition, July 1, 2005; 82(1): 265S - 273S. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 S. E. la Fleur, H. Houshyar, M. Roy, and M. F. Dallman Choice of Lard, But Not Total Lard Calories, Damps Adrenocorticotropin Responses to Restraint Endocrinology, May 1, 2005; 146(5): 2193 - 2199. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 L. F. Berkman Introduction: Seeing the Forest and the Trees--From Observation to Experiments in Social Epidemiology Epidemiol. Rev., July 1, 2004; 26(1): 2 - 6. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
L. F. Berkman Seeing the Forest and the Trees: New Visions in Social Epidemiology Am. J. Epidemiol., July 1, 2004; 160(1): 1 - 2. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|