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Internationally comparable health indices
Author(s) -
Meijer Erik,
Kapteyn Arie,
Andreyeva Tatiana
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
health economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.55
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1099-1050
pISSN - 1057-9230
DOI - 10.1002/hec.1620
Subject(s) - comparability , construct (python library) , health economics , reliability (semiconductor) , econometrics , demographic economics , economics , public economics , health care , economic growth , mathematics , computer science , power (physics) , physics , combinatorics , quantum mechanics , programming language
One of the most intractable problems in international health research is the lack of comparability of health measures across countries or cultures. We develop a cross‐country measurement model for health, in which functional limitations, self‐reports of health, and a physical measure are interrelated to construct health indices. To establish comparability across countries, we define the measurement scales by the physical measure while other parameters vary by country to reflect cultural and linguistic differences in response patterns. We find significant cross‐country variation in response styles of health reports along with variability in genuine health that is related to differences in national income. Our health indices achieve satisfactory reliability of about 80% and their gradients by age, income, and wealth for the most part show the expected patterns. Moreover, the health indices correlate much more strongly with income and net worth than self‐reported health measures. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.