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Democracy and self-rated health across 67 countries: A multilevel analysis

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  • Krueger, Patrick M.
  • Dovel, Kathryn
  • Denney, Justin T.

Abstract

Existing research has found a positive association between countries' level of democratic governance and the health of their populations, although that research is limited by the use of data from small numbers of high-income countries or aggregate data that do not assess individual-level health outcomes. We extend prior research by using multilevel World Health Survey (2002–2004) data on 313,554 individuals in 67 countries, and find that the positive association between democratic governance and self-rated health persists after adjusting for both individual- and country-level confounders. However, the mechanisms linking democracy and self-rated health remain unclear. Individual-level measures of socioeconomic status, and country-level measures of economic inequality and investments in public health and education, do not significantly mediate the association between democratic governance and self-rated health. The persistent association between democratic governance and health suggests that the political organization of societies may be an important upstream determinant of population health.

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  • Krueger, Patrick M. & Dovel, Kathryn & Denney, Justin T., 2015. "Democracy and self-rated health across 67 countries: A multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 137-144.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:143:y:2015:i:c:p:137-144
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.08.047
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    Cited by:

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    2. Alberto Batinti & Joan Costa‐Font & Timothy J. Hatton, 2022. "Voting Up? The Effects of Democracy and Franchise Extension on Human Stature," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(353), pages 161-190, January.
    3. Costa-Font, Joan & Kunst, Niklas, 2023. "Does exposure to democracy decrease health inequality?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119444, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Gugushvili, Alexi & Reeves, Aaron, 2021. "How democracy alters our view of inequality — and what it means for our health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    5. Chunshan Zhou & Jing Chen & Shaojian Wang, 2018. "Does Migrant Status and Household Registration Matter? Examining the Effects of City Size on Self-Rated Health," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-15, June.
    6. Han, Lu & Koenig-Archibugi, Mathias & Opsahl, Tore, 2018. "The social network of international health aid," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 67-74.
    7. Zajacova, Anna & Siddiqi, Arjumand, 2022. "A comparison of health and socioeconomic gradients in health between the United States and Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 306(C).
    8. Ramos, Antonio P. & Flores, Martin J. & Ross, Michael L., 2020. "Where has democracy helped the poor? Democratic transitions and early-life mortality at the country level," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    9. Nour Hammami & Yasemin Erdoğan & Frank J. Elgar, 2022. "Socioeconomic Position Mediates the Relationship between Family Social Benefits and Adolescent Life Satisfaction in 25 countries," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(5), pages 1761-1775, October.

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