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Mind the Gap: Revisiting the Concentration Index for Overweight

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  • David (David Patrick) Madden

Abstract

Much analysis of the socioeconomic gradient of overweight/obesity has involved the calculation of concentration indices for the incidence of these conditions. However this analysis ignores the severity of the conditions, in particular whether there is a gradient to how far are people above the relevant thresholds. Calculation of the concentration index for severity based measures for a dataset for Ireland reveals a much stronger gradient than for the incidence based measures. It is recommended that analysis of severity should always accompany analysis of the incidence of overweight/obesity.

Suggested Citation

  • David (David Patrick) Madden, 2017. "Mind the Gap: Revisiting the Concentration Index for Overweight," Working Papers 201722, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201722
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10197/9096
    File Function: First version, 2017
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Erreygers, Guido, 2009. "Correcting the Concentration Index: A reply to Wagstaff," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 521-524, March.
    2. David Madden, 2012. "A profile of obesity in Ireland, 2002–2007," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 175(4), pages 893-914, October.
    3. Burkhauser, Richard V. & Cawley, John, 2008. "Beyond BMI: The value of more accurate measures of fatness and obesity in social science research," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 519-529, March.
    4. Erreygers, Guido & Van Ourti, Tom, 2011. "Measuring socioeconomic inequality in health, health care and health financing by means of rank-dependent indices: A recipe for good practice," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 685-694, July.
    5. Dean Jolliffe, 2004. "Continuous and robust measures of the overweight epidemic: 1971–2000," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 41(2), pages 303-314, May.
    6. Walsh, Brendan & Cullinan, John, 2015. "Decomposing socioeconomic inequalities in childhood obesity: Evidence from Ireland," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 60-72.
    7. Erreygers, Guido, 2009. "Correcting the Concentration Index," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 504-515, March.
    8. Xander Koolman & Eddy van Doorslaer, 2004. "On the interpretation of a concentration index of inequality," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(7), pages 649-656, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Overweight; Obesity; Socioeconomic gradient; Concentration index;
    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

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