Health and Socioeconomic Class in Turkey

Year 2021, Volume: 6 Issue: 15, 156 - 171, 28.06.2021

Ömer Limanlı

https://doi.org/10.25204/iktisad.855528

Abstract

It is unfair for individuals to have poor health status due to their socioeconomic class. This article aims to examine the health polarization and inequality in Turkey from the perspective of socioeconomic class. Income and occupation category are taken as socioeconomic class indicator. To this end, newly developed polarization and inequality indices are employed. The data used in the study comes from the Income and Living Conditions Survey and covers the period 2006-2017. According to the index results, health polarization and inequality are decreasing for both men and women in the relevant period, regardless of the employment status. According to the regional results obtained from pooled data, the index reaches its highest values in the east of the country. Besides, an inverted-U relationship has been found between regional index results and regional average income. Index values vary according to both the income and occupation category. Concentration is mainly observed in occupational categories based on the low level of education and physical strength. The importance of socioeconomic class is verified by a multi-level mixed order logit estimation where determinants of health are estimated.

Keywords

Health inequality, class, polarization, Turkey

Türkiye'de Sağlık ve Sosyoekonomik Sınıf

Abstract

Bireylerin ait oldukları sosyoekonomik sınıf nedeniyle kötü sağlık durumuna sahip olmaları adil değildir. Bu makalenin amacı Türkiye’deki öznel sağlık değerlendirmesine dayalı sağlık kutuplaşmasını ve eşitsizliğini sosyoekonomik sınıf perspektifinden incelemektir. Gelir ve meslek kategorisi sosyoekonomik sınıf göstergesi olarak alınmıştır. Bu doğrultuda yeni geliştirilen kutuplaşma ve eşitsizlik endeksleri kullanılmıştır. Çalışmada kullanılan veri Gelir ve Yaşam Koşulları Araştırması’ndan gelmektedir ve 2006-2017 dönemini kapsamaktadır. Endeks sonuçlarına göre sağlık kutuplaşması ve eşitsizliği ilgili dönemde, çalışma durumundan bağımsız olarak hem erkekler hem de kadınlar için azalmaktadır. Havuzlanmış veriden elde edilen bölgesel sonuçlara göre endeks en yüksek değerlerine ülkenin doğusunda ulaşmaktadır. Ayrıca bölgesel endeks sonuçları ile bölgesel ortalama gelir arasında ters-U ilişki tespit edilmiştir. Endeks değerleri hem gelire hem de bireyin meslek kategorisine göre değişkenlik göstermektedir. Yoğunlaşma bilhassa eğitim düzeyinin düşük ve beden gücüne dayalı meslek kategorilerinde gözlenmiştir. Sosyoekonomik sınıfın önemli sağlığın belirleyicilerinin tahmin edildiği çok düzeyli karma sıralı logit tahmini ile doğrulanmıştır.

Keywords

Sağlık eşitsilziği, sınıf, kutuplaşma, Türkiye

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