IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joecag/v14y2019ics2212828x18300768.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Health inequalities in the South African elderly: The importance of the measure of social-economic status

Author

Listed:
  • Riumallo-Herl, Carlos
  • Canning, David
  • Kabudula, Chodziwadziwa

Abstract

A common approach when studying inequalities in health is to use a wealth index based on household durable goods as a proxy for socio-economic status. We test this approach for elderly health using data from an aging survey in a rural area of South Africa and find much steeper gradients for health with consumption adjusted for household size than with the wealth index. These results highlight the importance of the measure of socioeconomic status used when measuring health gradients, and the need for direct measures of household consumption or income in ageing studies.

Suggested Citation

  • Riumallo-Herl, Carlos & Canning, David & Kabudula, Chodziwadziwa, 2019. "Health inequalities in the South African elderly: The importance of the measure of social-economic status," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 14(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joecag:v:14:y:2019:i:c:s2212828x18300768
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeoa.2019.01.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212828X18300768
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jeoa.2019.01.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lindeboom, Maarten & van Doorslaer, Eddy, 2004. "Cut-point shift and index shift in self-reported health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 1083-1099, November.
    2. repec:pri:rpdevs:deaton_grosh_consumption is not listed on IDEAS
    3. van Doorslaer, Eddy & Wagstaff, Adam & Bleichrodt, Han & Calonge, Samuel & Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Gerfin, Michael & Geurts, Jose & Gross, Lorna & Hakkinen, Unto & Leu, Robert E., 1997. "Income-related inequalities in health: some international comparisons," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 93-112, February.
    4. Erik Meijer & Arie Kapteyn & Tatiana Andreyeva, 2011. "Internationally comparable health indices," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(5), pages 600-619, May.
    5. Costa-Font, Joan & Hernández-Quevedo, Cristina, 2012. "Measuring inequalities in health: What do we know? What do we need to know?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(2), pages 195-206.
    6. James M. Poterba & Steven F. Venti & David A. Wise, 2011. "Family Status Transitions, Latent Health, and the Post-Retirement Evolution of Assets," NBER Chapters, in: Explorations in the Economics of Aging, pages 23-69, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Magnus Lindelow, 2006. "Sometimes more equal than others: how health inequalities depend on the choice of welfare indicator," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(3), pages 263-279, March.
    8. Buhmann, Brigitte, et al, 1988. "Equivalence Scales, Well-Being, Inequality, and Poverty: Sensitivity Estimates across Ten Countries Using the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) Database," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 34(2), pages 115-142, June.
    9. Costa Font, Joan & Hernández-Quevedo, Cristina & McGuire, Alistair, 2011. "Persistence despite action? Measuring the patterns of health inequality in England (1997–2007)," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 149-159.
    10. Angus Deaton & Margaret Grosh, 1998. "Designing Household Survey Questionnaires for Developing Countries Lessons from Ten Years of LSMS Experience, Chapter 17: Consumption," Working Papers 218, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Research Program in Development Studies..
    11. Deon Filmer & Lant Pritchett, 2001. "Estimating Wealth Effects Without Expenditure Data—Or Tears: An Application To Educational Enrollments In States Of India," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 38(1), pages 115-132, February.
    12. Adam Wagstaff & Naoko Watanabe, 2003. "What difference does the choice of SES make in health inequality measurement?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(10), pages 885-890, October.
    13. Mark Montgomery & Michele Gragnolati & Kathleen Burke & Edmundo Paredes, 2000. "Measuring living standards with proxy variables," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 37(2), pages 155-174, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Muna Shifa & David Gordon & Murray Leibbrandt & Mary Zhang, 2022. "Socioeconomic-Related Inequalities in COVID-19 Vulnerability in South Africa," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-20, August.
    2. Riumallo Herl, Carlos & Kabudula, Chodziwadziwa & Kahn, Kathleen & Tollman, Stephen & Canning, David, 2022. "Pension exposure and health: Evidence from a longitudinal study in South Africa," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lovaton Davila, Rodrigo & McCarthy, Aine Seitz & Gondwe, Dorothy & Kirdruang, Phatta & Sharma, Uttam, 2022. "Water, walls, and bicycles: wealth index composition using census microdata," Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 88(1), pages 79-120, March.
    2. Costa-Font, Joan & Hernández-Quevedo, Cristina, 2012. "Measuring inequalities in health: What do we know? What do we need to know?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(2), pages 195-206.
    3. Deon Filmer & Kinnon Scott, 2012. "Assessing Asset Indices," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(1), pages 359-392, February.
    4. Arie Kapteyn & Erik Meijer, 2014. "A Comparison of Different Measures of Health and their Relation to Labor Force Transitions at Older Ages," NBER Chapters, in: Discoveries in the Economics of Aging, pages 115-150, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Eddy van Doorslaer & Owen O'Donnell, 2008. "Measurement and Explanation of Inequality in Health and Health Care in Low-Income Settings," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2008-04, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. Celhay, Pablo & Martinez, Sebastian & Vidal, Cecilia, 2018. "Socioeconomic Gaps in Child Development: Evidence from a National Health and Nutrition Survey in Bolivia," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 34, Inter-American Development Bank.
    7. Coveney, Max & García-Gómez, Pilar & van Doorslaer, Eddy & Van Ourti, Tom, 2020. "Thank goodness for stickiness: Unravelling the evolution of income-related health inequalities before and after the Great Recession in Europe," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    8. Baris Ucar, 2015. "The Usability of Asset Index as an Indicator of Household Economic Status in Turkey: Comparison with Expenditure and Income Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 121(3), pages 745-760, April.
    9. Nicolas R. Ziebarth, 2009. "Measurement of Health, the Sensitivity of the Concentration Index, and Reporting Heterogeneity," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 211, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    10. Lindelow, Magnus, 2004. "Sometimes more equal than others : how health inequalities depend on the choice of welfare indicator," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3329, The World Bank.
    11. Ziebarth, Nicolas, 2010. "Measurement of health, health inequality, and reporting heterogeneity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 116-124, July.
    12. Costa-Font, Joan & Hernández-Quevedo, Cristina & Jiménez-Rubio, Dolores, 2014. "Income inequalities in unhealthy life styles in England and Spain," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 66-75.
    13. Magnus Lindelow, 2006. "Sometimes more equal than others: how health inequalities depend on the choice of welfare indicator," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(3), pages 263-279, March.
    14. Schreiner, Mark, 2011. "Estimating Expenditure-Based Poverty from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey," Bangladesh Development Studies, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), vol. 34(4), pages 65-94, December.
    15. Makate, Marshall & Makate, Clifton, 2016. "The Evolution of Socioeconomic-Related Inequalities in Maternal Healthcare Utilization: Evidence from Zimbabwe, 1994-2011," MPRA Paper 83897, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 12 Jan 2018.
    16. Marjorie Opuni & Amber Peterman & David Bishai, 2011. "Inequality in prime‐age adult deaths in a high AIDS mortality setting: does the measure of economic status matter?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(11), pages 1298-1311, November.
    17. Barik, Debasis & Desai, Sonalde & Vanneman, Reeve, 2018. "Economic Status and Adult Mortality in India: Is the Relationship Sensitive to Choice of Indicators?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 176-187.
    18. Janina Isabel Steinert & Lucie Dale Cluver & G. J. Melendez-Torres & Sebastian Vollmer, 2018. "One Size Fits All? The Validity of a Composite Poverty Index Across Urban and Rural Households in South Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(1), pages 51-72, February.
    19. Abderrahman Yassine & Fatima Bakass, 2022. "Do Education and Employment Play a Role in Youth’s Poverty Alleviation? Evidence from Morocco," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-25, September.
    20. Maite Blázquez Cuesta & Elena Cottini & Herrarte, A. (Ainhoa), 2012. "GINI DP 39: Socioeconomic Gradient in Health: How Important is Material Deprivation?," GINI Discussion Papers 39, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joecag:v:14:y:2019:i:c:s2212828x18300768. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/the-journal-of-the-economics-of-ageing .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.