http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/HDNet/HDdocs.nsf/c840b59b6982d2498525670c004def60/fb5c8fc6a3b41d4c85256aa100727ae9/$FILE/who+you+are+where+you+live+etc.pdf

Inequalities in Health: Who You Are? Where You Live? Or Who Your Parents
Were?

Evidence From a Cohort of British 33-Year Olds

by Adam Wagstaff, The World Bank, University of Sussex
Pierella Paci, The World Bank, Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of
Education, University of London and
Heather Joshi Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Education,
University of London, UK

Paper presented at International Health Economics Association (iHEA)
Conference July 2001

"....Amongst 33-year olds in the UK National Child Development Study (NCDS),
ill health (as measured by cardinalised responses to a question on
self-assessed health) is concentrated amongst the worse off. We seek to
decompose these inequalities in ill health into their socioeconomic or
underlying causes. In this decomposition, inequalities in health status
depend on inequalities in each of the underlying determinants of health and
on the elasticities of health status with respect to each of these
determinants. These elasticities are estimated using regression models that
allow for unobserved heterogeneity at the community level. We find that only
6% of health inequality is accounted for inequalities in unobserved
area-level influences, and only 4% by inequalities in parental education and
social class. The bulk of health inequality is accounted for by inequalities
in income and housing tenure, though inequalities in educational attainment
and in maths scores at age 7 also play a part........."