Socio-Economic Status Gradient in Health: Micro Evidence from Turkey
Abstract
Numerous studies have shown a strong relationship between health and socio-economic status (SES). However determining which aspect of SES affects health and how much more rapidly health declines for some individuals than others over life cycle are keys to policy debate. In this respect, by using TURKSTAT’s 2010 Survey of Income and Living Conditions (SILC), the contribution of this study to the literature is depicting SES gradient in health over life course by using different aspects of SES for Turkey. Results show that the bottom of SES hierarchy are in much worse health than those at the top and average health among men is better than women. The health gradient exists in all indicators of SES. We observe relatively wide SES gradient in health in middleages and narrowing of it in old ages implying some mixture of cumulative advantage
hypothesis and age-as-leveler hypothesis operates through life cycle.
Keywords
References
- Beckett, M. (2000) Converging Health Inequalities in Later Life: An Artificant of Mortality Selections. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 41(1), 106-119.
- Case, A. & Deaton, A. (2005) Broken Down by Work and Sex: How Our Health Declines. David A. Wise (ed.), Analyses in the Economics of Aging, Chicago, Chicago University Press, for NBER.
- Cutler, D. M., Lleras-Muney, A. & Vogl, T. (2008) Socioeconomic Status and Health: Dimensions and Mechanisms. NBER Working Paper, No.14333.
- Deaton, A. (2007) Income, Aging, Health and Wellbeing Around the World: Evidence from the Gallup World Poll. NBER Working Paper, No.W13317.
- Deaton, A.S. & Paxson, C.H. (1998) Aging and Inequality in Income and Health. American Economic Review, 88(2), 248-263.
- Grossman, M. (1972) On the Concept of Health Capital and the Demand for Health. Journal of Political Economy, 80(2), 223-255.
- Herd, P. (2006) Do Functional Health Inequalities Decrease in Old Age. Research on Aging, 28(3), 375-392.
- Idler, E.L. & Benyamini, Y. (1997) Self Rated Health and Mortality: A Review of Twenty-Seven Community Studies. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 38(1), 21-37.
- Kerkhofs M. & Lindeboom, M. (1995) Subjective Health Measures and State Dependent Reporting Errors. Health Economics, 4(3), 221-235.
- Lynch, S. M. (2003) Cohort and Life Course Patterns in the Relationship Between Education and Health: A Hierarchical Approach. Demography, 40(2), 309-331.
