http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/050429/d050429b.htm
Friday, April 29, 2005
Study: Income inequality and working-age mortality
In Great Britain and the United States, working-age people living in
metropolitan areas with high income inequality had higher death rates in
1991 compared with people living in metropolitan areas with lower income
inequality, according to a new study. But this association between
mortality and income inequality at the metropolitan level was not found for
Canada and the two other countries included in the analysis.
Previous studies have demonstrated that in many developed countries, people
with lower income have higher death rates compared to people with higher
income. However, the relationship between income distribution and mortality
is a more complex phenomenon about which much less is known.
The current study analyzed comparable data on income distribution and
three-year average death rates for people aged 25 to 64 in 528 metropolitan
areas in five industrialized countries. The mortality rates were
age-standardized to the Canadian population in 1991. Income inequality was
calculated as the share of total after-transfer, pre-tax household income
for the poorer 50% of all households within a given metropolitan area.
The study substantiated a link between income inequality and death rates
among the working-age population only within the United States and Great
Britain. The link did not hold in metropolitan centres of Canada, Australia
or Sweden.
Previous studies have shown that death rates among working-age populations
are extremely sensitive to underlying social conditions. The study's
findings suggest that in Australia, Canada, and Sweden, public resources
that enhance health along social lines may filter down to metropolitan
areas through spending in areas such as education, health care and housing.
Among the five countries examined, spending on these items as a proportion
of gross domestic product was highest for Sweden in 1990 at about 31%, and
the lowest for the United States at just over 13%.
However, the study concluded that the findings also provide evidence for
the idea that there is not necessarily an association between income
inequality and population health. The question, therefore, becomes one of
understanding the social conditions under which income inequality is linked
to the health of populations.
The study "Metropolitan income inequality and working-age mortality: A
cross-sectional analysis using comparable data from five countries",
published recently in the Journal of Urban Health, is a collaboration of
Statistics Canada and an international group of researchers. An abstract of
the article is available free online, in English only
(http://jurban.oupjournals.org/cgi/reprint/82/1/101).
For more information about the concepts, methods or data quality of the
study or to obtain a copy, contact Dr. Nancy Ross (1-514-398-4307;
[log in to unmask]), McGill University or Jean-Marie Berthelot
(1-613-951-3760; [log in to unmask]) or François Gendron (1-613-951-1509;
[log in to unmask]), Health Analysis and Measurement Group.
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