BACKGROUND In all countries people of lower socioeconomic status evaluate their health more poorly. Yet in reporting overall health, individuals consider multiple domains that comprise their perceived health state. Considered alone, overall measures of self-reported health mask differences in the domains of health. The aim of this study is to compare and assess socioeconomic inequalities in eac...

BACKGROUND In Finland, socioeconomic inequalities in mortality have been well documented. However, the role of working conditions in the emergence of those inequalities has not been thoroughly examined. METHODS Data came from the Longitudinal Census file, which included censuses since 1970 (every 5 years). The cohort consisted of men who were in the same occupation in 1975 and 1980, and who w...

Wilkinson's "income inequality and social cohesion" model has emerged as a leading research program in social epidemiology. Public health scholars and activists working toward the elimination of social inequalities in health can find several appealing features in Wilkinson's research. In particular, it provides a sociological alternative to former models that emphasize poverty, health behaviors...

The existence of social inequalities in health is well established. One strand of research focuses on inequalities in health within a single country. A separate and newer strand of research focuses on the relationship between inequality and average population health across countries. Despite the theorization of (presumably variable) social conditions as "fundamental causes" of disease and healt...

BACKGROUND Recent studies have noted widening health inequalities between rich and poor areas in a number of OECD countries. This paper examines whether health in New Zealand has become more geographically polarized during the period 1980-2001, a time of rapid social and economic changes in New Zealand society. METHODS Mortality records for each year between 1980 and 2001 were extracted for c...

Investments in the extension of health insurance coverage, the strengthening of public health services, as well as primary care and better hospitals, highlights the emerging role of healthcare as part of China’s new growth regime, based on an expansion of services, and redistributive policies. Such investments, apart from their central role in terms of relief for low-income people, serve to reb...

BACKGROUND The rapidly changing landscape of percutaneous coronary intervention provides a unique model for examining disparities over time. Previous studies have not examined socioeconomic inequalities in the current era of drug eluting stents (DES). METHODS AND RESULTS We analyzed 835 070 hospitalizations for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project acr...

During the last decades the inequalities in the distribution of income and wealth in the UK have grown and led to an increasing socio-economic polarisation and dualism (Atkinson, 1996; Hills, 1996; Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 1995). Although average real incomes have grown significantly, at the bottom of the scale there has been little or no rise in real income. In contrast, top incomes have ri...

OBJECTIVE To analyze the evolution and determinants of income-related inequalities in the Brazilian health system between 1998 and 2008. METHODS Data from the National Household Sampling Surveys of 1998, 2003, and 2008 were used to analyze inequalities in health and health care. Health was measured by self-reported health status, physical limitations, and chronic illness. Hospitalization and ...