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Welfare states, the Great Recession and health: Trends in educational inequalities in self-reported health in 26 European countries

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  • Teresa Leão
  • Inês Campos-Matos
  • Clare Bambra
  • Giuliano Russo
  • Julian Perelman

Abstract

Background: Although socioeconomic inequalities in health have long been observed in Europe, few studies have analysed their recent patterning. In this paper, we examined how educational inequalities in self-reported health have evolved in different European countries and welfare state regimes over the last decade, which was troubled by the Great Recession. Methods: We used cross-sectional data from the EU-SILC survey for adults from 26 European countries, from 2005 to 2014 (n = 3,030,595). We first calculated education-related absolute (SII) and relative (RII) inequalities in poor self-reported health by country-year, adjusting for age, sex, and EU-SILC survey weights. We then regressed the year- and country-specific RII and SII on a yearly time trend, globally and by welfare regime, adjusting for country fixed effects. We further adjusted the analysis for the economic cycle using GDP growth, unemployment, and income inequality. Results: Overall, absolute inequalities persisted and relative inequalities slightly widened (betaRII = 0.0313, p

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  • Teresa Leão & Inês Campos-Matos & Clare Bambra & Giuliano Russo & Julian Perelman, 2018. "Welfare states, the Great Recession and health: Trends in educational inequalities in self-reported health in 26 European countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(2), pages 1-14, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0193165
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0193165
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