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Poverty and Transitions in Health

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  • Maja Adena
  • Michal Myck

Abstract

Using a sample of Europeans aged 50+ from twelve countries in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) we analyse the role of poor material conditions as a determinant of changes in health over a four-year period. We find that poverty defined with respect to relative incomes has no effect on changes in health. However, broader measures of poor material conditions such as subjective poverty or low relative value of wealth significantly increase the probability of transition to poor health among the healthy and reduce the chance of recovery from poor health over the time interval analysed. In addition to this the subjective measure of poverty has a significant effect on mortality, increasing it by 40.3% among men and by 58.3% among those aged 50-64. Material conditions matter for health among older people. We suggest that if monitoring of poverty in old age and corresponding policy targets are to focus on the relevant measures, they should take into account broader definitions of poverty than those based only on relative incomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Maja Adena & Michal Myck, 2013. "Poverty and Transitions in Health," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1319, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1319
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    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. #HEJC papers for September 2013
      by academichealtheconomists in The Academic Health Economists' Blog on 2013-09-01 04:01:38
    2. #HEJC for 17/10/2013
      by paulmitchell1 in The Academic Health Economists' Blog on 2013-10-10 10:30:39

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    Cited by:

    1. Vieider, Ferdinand M. & Cingl, Lubomír & Martinsson, Peter & Stojic, Hrvoje, 2013. "Separating attitudes towards money from attitudes towards probabilities: Stake effects and ambiguity as a test for prospect theory," Discussion Papers, WZB Junior Research Group Risk and Development SP II 2013-401, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    2. Adena, Maja & Myck, Michal, 2014. "Poverty and transitions in health in later life," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 202-210.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    health transitions; material conditions; poverty; mortality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination

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