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Measuring inequalities in health in the presence of multiple‐category morbidity indicators
Author(s) -
Wagstaff Adam,
Van Doorslaer Eddy
Publication year - 1994
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.4730030409
Subject(s) - categorical variable , inequality , variable (mathematics) , mathematics , latent variable , econometrics , continuous variable , health equity , statistics , socioeconomic status , affect (linguistics) , point (geometry) , medicine , economics , psychology , health care , environmental health , population , economic growth , mathematical analysis , geometry , communication
This paper considers the problems which arise in seeking to measure socioeconomic inequalities in health when the health indicator is a categorical variable, such as self‐assessed health. It shows that the standard approach—which involves dichotomizing the categorical variable—is unreliable. The degree of measured inequality is found to depend on the cut‐off point chosen and the choice of cut‐off point to affect the conclusions one can reach about trends in or differences in health inequality. The paper goes on to propose an alternative approach which involves constructing a latent health variable and then measuring inequalities in this latent variable by means of a variant of the health concentration curve.