CGPH FACULTY: William Dow
DATE OF PUBLICATION: January 2011
REGION: Latin America
REFERENCE: Modrek S, Dow WH, Rosero-Bixby L. Long-term association of economic inequality and mortality in adult Costa Ricans. Soc Sci Med. 2012 Jan;74(2):158-66. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.10.034. Epub 2011 Dec 6.
SUMMARY/ABSTRACT: Despite the large number of studies, mostly in developed economies, there is limited consensus on the health effects of inequality. Recently a related literature has examined the relationship between relative deprivation and health as a mechanism to explain the economic inequality and health relationship. This study evaluates the relationship between mortality and economic inequality, as measured by area-level Gini coefficients, as well as the relationship between mortality and relative deprivation, in the context of a middle-income country, Costa Rica.Taken together, these results suggest that deprivation relative to those higher in a hierarchy is more detrimental to health than the overall dispersion of the hierarchy itself, within the Costa Rican context.
ACCESS: Link to Pubmed