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. 2007 Oct 27;335(7625):873.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.39349.507315.DE. Epub 2007 Oct 22.

The global impact of income inequality on health by age: an observational study

Danny Dorling  1 , Richard Mitchell, Jamie Pearce
Affiliations

The global impact of income inequality on health by age: an observational study

Danny Dorling et al. BMJ. .

Abstract

Objectives: To explore whether the apparent impact of income inequality on health, which has been shown for wealthier nations, is replicated worldwide, and whether the impact varies by age.

Design: Observational study.

Setting: 126 countries of the world for which complete data on income inequality and mortality by age and sex were available around the year 2002 (including 94.4% of world human population).

Data sources: Data on mortality were from the World Health Organization and income data were taken from the annual reports of the United Nations Development Programme.

Main outcome measures: Mortality in 5-year age bands for each sex by income inequality and income level.

Results: At ages 15-29 and 25-39 variations in income inequality seem more closely correlated with mortality worldwide than do variations in material wealth. This relation is especially strong among the poorest countries in Africa. Mortality is higher for a given level of overall income in more unequal nations.

Conclusions: Income inequality seems to have an influence worldwide, especially for younger adults. Social inequality seems to have a universal negative impact on health.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: All authors are in their 30s and are currently seeking the “bubble reputation” (As You Like It 2.7.139-65). However, all have their feet on the ground, having trained in medical geography.

Figures

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Fig 1 Association of income inequality and affluence with mortality in the 30 countries of the OECD (income inequality measured as the Gini coefficient, and affluence as the log of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita adjusted to ensure purchasing power parity)
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Fig 2 Association of income inequality and affluence with mortality in all countries worldwide (income inequality measured as the Gini coefficient, and affluence as the log of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita adjusted to ensure purchasing power parity)
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The world's countries shaped with area in proportion to the number of people living on ≤$10 a day (from Worldmapper, www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=153). Some 3.5 billion people, more than half the world population, survive on the equivalent, or less, of what $10 in the US would buy a day
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The world's countries shaped with area in proportion to the gross domestic product per capita of people adjusted for purchasing power parity (2002 data) (from Worldmapper, www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=170). Roughly $50 trillion is “earned” a year worldwide, $7800 per person, or $21 on average a day
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The world's countries shaped with area in proportion to the deaths of children aged 1-4 years inclusive (2002 data) (from Worldmapper, www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=263). Some 3.2 million children of these ages die every year
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

  • Equitable access to health care.
    Tumwine JK. Tumwine JK. BMJ. 2007 Oct 27;335(7625):833-4. doi: 10.1136/bmj.39371.586076.80. Epub 2007 Oct 22. BMJ. 2007. PMID: 17954517 Free PMC article.

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