Importance while the association between income inequality and interpersonal violence has been attributed to the psychosocial effects of inequality eg, increased class anxiety, reduced social capital, longitudinal evidence for this pathway is limited by a reliance on small ecological studies and crosssectional data. The objective of the study was to investigate the relation of income inequality and indicators of social capital to selfinflicted injury mortality suicide and violencerelated mortality, and to. Social capital, income inequality, and firearm violent crime. Social security, income inequality and growth journal of. Recent studies have demonstrated that income inequality is related to mortality rates. Income is defined as household disposable income in a particular year. Correlation among income inequality, social capital, and mortality. Heterogeneity, income inequality, and social capital. These data support the notion that income inequality leads to increased mortality via disinvestment in social capital. Social capital has been related to a number of important public health variables such as child welfare, mortality, and health status. Social capital, race, and income inequality in the united. Geronimus introduction nationally, the ageadjusted relative risk of death for people at the bottom of the distributions of education, income, and occupational standing is two to three times as high as it is for people at the top of such distributions sorlie et al. Pdf income inequality has generally been associated with differences in health. Disparities in premature mortality between high and low.
There is also evidence of both mediating and moderating effects. For 15 developed countries with comparable income inequality data, lynch and colleagues showed that indicators of social capital, such as trust and belonging to and volunteering for community organisations, were all much more strongly related to gross domestic product per person than to income inequality. Department of psychiatry and behavioural sciences, royal free and university college medical school, and barnet enfield and haringey mental health nhs trust, london, and department of social medicine, harvard medical school, boston, massachusetts, usa. The authors estimate crosssectional associations between economic inequality, workingclass power, and social capital and life expectancy, selfrated health, low birth weight, and age and causespecific mortality in 16 wealthy countries. Our expectation was that associations of income inequality and social capital with the outcomes would be exacerbated by the political and social instability in former communist europe, and. Teen births, income inequality, and social capital. See the article social capital, income inequality, and mortality. When this dependency is not seen, then the health associations of income inequality and social capital. Income inequality is associated with low levels of trust and social capital, mental illness, teenage birth rates, low social mobility, homicide rates, obesity, poor educational performance, and mortality 5, and may alter biologic functioning. Social capital, income inequality and the social gradient in.
This article reports a contextual analysis of social capital and individual selfrated health, with adjustment for individual household income, health behaviors, and other covariates. Data sources 26 databases and websites, reference lists, experts in the field and handsearching. Get a printable copy pdf file of the complete article 1. Social capital, income inequality, and mortality article pdf available in american journal of public health 879. Contribution of incomerelated inequality and healthcare. This study investigated whether state levels of social capital are associated with rates of completed suicides in the fifty u. Social capital, race, and income inequality in the united states article pdf available in sustainability 92. Income inequality among countries has declined in relative terms but is still higher. Association between income inequality and mental health. Income distribution, socioeconomic status, and self rated. Health status may have a reciprocal relationship with income inequality. We performed crosssectional regression analyses of the relationship between income inequality national gini coefficient and national wealth gross domestic product. Association of earlylife exposure to income inequality.
A broad trend in in percapita income pci and income inequality gini coefficient in different states of india is given in appendix ix. Pdf recent studies have demonstrated that income inequality is related to mortality rates. Is social capital the key to inequalities in health. Additionally, we investigated the income inequality influence on the effect of collective social capital indicators on the health gradient using a threeway interaction term between education, each social capital indicator and income inequality we dichotomized the mean gini index as high and low, based on the median, to better illustrate the. After a thorough analysis that explains the nexus at the theoretical level, we will empirically evaluate it by mean of a mixed effects logistic model for the european individuals who are older than 60 in 2011. Continuing with the issue of relative versus absolute income, lynchet al also refer to an earlier paper demonstrating a close relation between income inequality and mortality in the 282 standard metropolitan areas smas of the usa. Income inequality and racial disparities in pregnancy. The most plausible explanation for income inequalitys apparent effect on health and social problems is status anxiety. Methods this study used pooled timeseries crosssectional analysis of 11 years of statelevel data n549. More conceptual and empirical work is needed to assess the relationship between these concepts. Social capital, income inequality, and mortality by nikan. Economic inequality, workingclass power, social capital, and. To assess the strength of the association between income inequality and a nations propensity to distribute development aid, we correlated the gini coefficient the most commonly used income inequality index with figures for official development assistance oda, expressed as a percentage of gni for 22 countries belonging to the organisation for economic cooperation and.
Social capital, poverty, and income inequality as predictors. How can social capital be built limitations summary of article social capital can easily be destroyed social capital acts as a catalyst social capital, income inequality, and mortality what is the difference between human capital and social capital. Economic inequality and social differentials in mortality. Poverty, inequality and a political economy of mental. The evidence on this association between countries is mixed,14 but income inequality and health have been linked within the united states,511 britain,12 and brazil. However, the relation of social capital to infectious diseases has received relatively little attention. This study, therefore, looks at the income, income inequality and mortality relationship in india using data from 1971 to 2003. Although much work is needed in refining the notion of social capital, kawachi et al recently carried out an analysis of income inequality in the united states and its relation to social capital, as defined by two of the indicators described by putnam.
I explore the connection between health and inequality in both poor and rich countries. Health, income, and inequality russell sage foundation. Social capital and health plus wealth, income inequality. Infant mortality and income inequality in 28 oecd countries.
Pdf income inequality, social capital and selfinflicted. In general, studies of income inequality and mortality fall into one of three types. Income inequality, the psychosocial environment, and. Social capital consists of features of social organizationsuch as trust between citizens, norms of reciprocity, and group membershipthat facilitate collective action. Pdf social capital, income inequality, and mortality. Income inequality and child mortality in wealthy nations. Gould and alexander hijzen authorized for distribution by romain duval august 2016 abstract there is a widespread perception that trust and social capital have declined in united states as well as other advanced economies, while income inequality has tended to increase. We discuss three interpretations of the association. Diversity and income inequality have negative effects on social capital. The developmental consequences of earlylife inequality for subsequent.
An ecological study including 30 european countries, including former. The degree of income inequality in each state was estimated by the robin hood index, which is equivalent to the proportion of aggregate income that. The united states has higher income and wealth inequality than almost all other developed countries. The relationship among social capital, income inequality, and diversity is complex. Pdf the distribution of mortality in the united states. Social capital, income, inequality and health disparity ldi. Economic inequality and social differentials in mortality arline t. For example, one study examined the link between 4 measures of social capital perceived fairness, perceived helpfulness, group membership, and trust, income inequality, and mortality. Mortality, income, and income inequality over time in britain and the united states angus deaton and christina paxson angus deaton is the dwight d.
This suggests that income inequality is harmful because it places people in a hierarchy that increases status competition and causes stress, which leads to poor health and other negative outcomes. Background and purpose the goal of this study was to test whether primary care reduces the impact of income inequality on stroke mortality. The distribution of mortality in the united states. Inequality matters stanford graduate school of education. Pdf social capital, race, and income inequality in the. The objective of the study was to investigate the relation of income inequality and indicators of social capital to selfinflicted injury mortality suicide and violencerelated mortality, and to the share of total mortality that is due to these two causes of death in 35 developed countries. The relationship between income inequality and health, on the other hand, remains controversial 3,4. Income inequality partially mediates the negative relationship between diversity and social capital. Pdf social capital, income inequality, and mortality researchgate.
We hypothesized that the effect of the growing gap between the rich and poor is mediated through an undermining of social cohesion, or social capital, and that decreased social capital is in turn associated with increased firearm homicide and violent crime. The theory that income inequality and characteristics of the psychosocial environment indexed by such things as social capital and sense of control over lifes circumstances are key determinants of health and could account for health differences between countries has become influential in health inequalities research and for population health. The impact of income inequality and national wealth on. Social capital, race, and income inequality in the united states. Social capital, income inequality, and firearm violent. As income inequality increases, the negative relationship between diversity and social capital decreases. Adjusted gross income minus social security and disability benefits for nonfilers. Income inequality was strongly correlated with firearm violent crime firearm homicide, r 0. Reexamining the statelevel data, working papers 0309, harris school of public policy studies, university of chicago. Aug 30, 2011 in turn, both social trust and group membership were associated with total mortality, as well as rates of death from coronary heart disease, malignant neoplasms, and infant mortality.
Relationships between income inequality and various health indicators have been the subject of much study and some controversy. Pdf social capital, income inequality and mortality. The income of the household is attributed to each of its members, with an adjustment to reflect differences. The relation of social capital to health measures is often posited to be related to the key societal variables of poverty and income inequality. The third hypothesis has been termed the neomaterialist explanation and explains the association between income inequality and health via systematic under investment in social infrastructure and services in more unequal societies.
In turn, both social trust and group membership were associated with total mortality, as well as rates of death from coronary heart disease, malignant neoplasms, and infant mortality. Apr 29, 2000 studies on the health effects of income inequality have generated great interest. Income inequality was strongly correlated with both per capita group membership r. The effects of income inequality, social capital, and race february 2007 omegajournal of death and dying 541. Read social capital, income inequality, and mortality.
Although the direct effect is negative, there is some evidence for key mediating and moderating effects. In the latter case, we then show in this article that an actuarially fair payasyougo pension system can both reduce lifetime income inequality and enhance economic growth. Statelevel social capital and suicide mortality in the 50. Levels of income inequality, social capital, and health in a community may all be consequences of macrolevel social and economic processes that influence health across the life course. It was hypothesized, in this study, that income inequality is related to reduction in social cohesion and that disinvestment in social capital is in turn associated with increased mortality. These findings suggest that survival of less fatal cancers is influenced more strongly by income related factors, such as nutrition, housing, level of healthcare utilisation and social support. Kawachi i1, kennedy bp, lochner k, prothrowstith d. Mortality, human capital and persistent inequality shankha chakraborty. This pilot project 1 tries to study the health impact of personalized social capital measured by a persons access to social networks, family, and friends, economywide social capital measured by the geographicspecific levels of civic engagement, trust, and helpfulness, and their interactions with each other as well as with socioeconomic. Our results show that early land inequality has a detrimental influence on math and science skills even a century later. Social capital and mental health the british journal of. Analyses controlled for education levels, unemployment, racialethnic composition, and percent urban. Income inequality, social capital and selfinflicted.
Mortalitys relationships with income may be quite distant in time. Social capital and health plus wealth, income inequality and. It consists of earnings, selfemployment and capital income and public cash transfers. We create a new dataset to test the influence of land inequality on longrun human capital formation in a global crosscountry study and assess the importance of land inequality relative to income inequality. Here, the status anxiety hypothesis merges with the social capital hypothesis. Does income inequality cause health and social problems. Pdf social capital, income inequality and mortality edem. See the article income dynamics and adult mortality in the united states, 1972 through 1989. Objectives to determine the association between area and individual measures of social disadvantage and infant health in the uk. Pdf infant mortality and income inequality in 28 oecd. In addition, while it was beyond the scope of the present study to examine the potential pathways explaining the association between income inequality and maternal mortality, future research should examine the role of institutional and political mechanisms e. In conclusion, understanding the relationships between politics, poverty, inequality and mental health outcomes requires us to develop a robust, evidencebased political economy of mental health. My primary focus is on the relationship between income inequality and mortality, but i also discuss the effects of inequalities in other, often more important, dimensions.
The subject matter of social capital tends to arouse passions. Such evidence is clearly inconsistent with the aih. Instead, income inequality may reflect the effects of other socioeconomic variables that are also related to mortality. To do this we regressed statelevel suicide rates on an index of social capital, along with other variables known to influence suicide rates such as gun ownership, income inequality, alcohol abuse and dependence, drug abuse and dependence, serious mental. Simon 1 1 department of political science, university of utah, salt lake city, ut 841129155, usa. Social capital, income inequality and the health of the. Primary care, income inequality, and stroke mortality in. Studies have shown that poverty and income are powerful predictors of homicide and violent crime. In this crosssectional ecologic study based on data from 39 states, social capital was measured. The association between income and life expectancy in the. After they controlled in their path analysis for disinvestment in social capital, they found little residual association between income inequality and mortality, suggesting that the primary effect of income inequality on mortality is mediated by social capital.
Importance to health of individual income, psychosocial environment, or material conditions. Study selection 36 prospective and retrospective observational studies with socioeconomic data and health outcomes for. The substantial correlations with some measures of human capital imply that income inequality may not have a direct effect on mortality. The social mistrust vari able was strongly related to ageadjusted total mortality rates both in whites r. The income inequality hypothesis holds that beyond a certain level of gross domestic product gdp per capita, the association between absolute income, health and mortality weakens, and the distribution of income across a society becomes more important as a determinant of a range of outcomes including average mental and physical health. Mortality, income, and income inequality over time in britain. Social capital, income inequality and the social gradient. In particular, neoliberal marketoriented political doctrines lead to both increased income inequality and reduced social cohesion.
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