This paper investigates using data on 2,700 persons in the North of Ireland, whether there is a social gradient to health, both with respect to general health (self-assessed health status; long-term limiting illness; the existence of a health problem) and with respect to specific illnesses (asthma; arthritis; back pain; blood pressure problem; heart problem; mental illness). The evidence suggests that people who live in poor housing (for example, damp houses with inadequate heating) are more likely to be in bad health, in respect of both general health and specific ailments, than persons living in good housing. There is also evidence that persons without educational qualifications are more likely to be in bad health than persons who have educational qualifications. Lastly, the results point to the fact that higher levels of household income are associated with better health outcomes. If one defines the “social gradient” in terms of these three factors – housing quality, education qualifications, and income level – then the results suggest that people’s health outcomes depend upon their position on the social ladder.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Karl Whelan).
Related research
Keywords:
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.: