Social Science and Medicine
   Vol: 57, Issue: 8, October, 2003
   pp. 1463-1473


   Title:
                Exploring relative deprivation: Is social comparison a
mechanism in the
                relation between income and health?
   Authors:
                Åberg Yngwe, Monicaa; Fritzell, Johana; Lundberg, Ollea;
Diderichsen, Finnb;
                Burström, Bob
   Affiliations:
                a. Centre for Health Equity Studies (CHESS), Stockholm
University, Karolinska
                Institutet, Stockholm 10691, Sweden
                b. Department of Social Medicine, Institute of Public
Health, Karolinska
                Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
   Keywords:
                Relative deprivation; Income; Reference groups; Self-rated
health; Sweden
   Abstract
   (English):
                During the last decade there has been a growing interest in
the relation between
                income and health. The discussion has mostly focused on the
individual's
                relative standing in the income distribution with the
implicit understanding that
                the absolute level of income is not as relevant when the
individual's basic needs
                are fulfilled. This study hypothesises relative deprivation
to be a mechanism in
                the relation between income and health in Sweden: being
relatively deprived in
                comparison to a reference group causes a stressful
situation, which might affect
                self-rated health. Reference groups were formed by
combining indicators of
                social class, age and living region, resulting in 40
reference groups. Within each
                of these groups a mean income level was calculated and
individuals with an
                income below 70% of the mean income level in the reference
group were
                considered as being relatively deprived. The results showed
that more women
                than men were relatively deprived, but the effect of
relative deprivation on
                self-rated health was more pronounced among men than among
women. In
                order to estimate the importance of the effect of relative
income versus the effect
                of absolute income, some analyses on the effect of relative
deprivation on
                self-rated health were also carried out within different
absolute income levels.
                When restricting the analysis to the lowest 40% of the
income span the effect of
                relative deprivation almost disappeared. Relative
deprivation may have a
                significant relation to health among men. However, for the
40% with the lowest
                income in the population the effect of relative deprivation
on health is
                considerably reduced, possibly due to the more prominent
relation between low
                absolute income and poor health.
   Publisher:
                Elsevier Science
   Language of
   Publication:
                English

To unsubscribe send one line: unsubscribe click4hp to: [log in to unmask] . To view archives or modify subscription see: http://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/click4hp.html