Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T09:17:14.224Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

SOCIOECONOMIC INEQUALITIES IN SELF-REPORTED HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FUNCTIONING IN ARGENTINA: FINDINGS FROM THE NATIONAL SURVEY ON QUALITY OF LIFE OF OLDER ADULTS 2012 (ENCaViAM)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2016

Santiago Rodríguez López ,
Sonia E. Colantonio  and
Dora E. Celton
Santiago Rodríguez López*
Affiliation:
Research and Study Centre on Culture and Society, National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CIECS-CONICET-UNC), Córdoba, Argentina
Sonia E. Colantonio
Affiliation:
Research and Study Centre on Culture and Society, National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CIECS-CONICET-UNC), Córdoba, Argentina National University of Córdoba (UNC), Argentina
Dora E. Celton
Affiliation:
Research and Study Centre on Culture and Society, National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CIECS-CONICET-UNC), Córdoba, Argentina National University of Córdoba (UNC), Argentina
*
1Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

This study aimed to evaluate educational and income inequalities in self-reported health (SRH), and physical functioning (limitations in Activities of Daily Living (ADL)/Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL)), among 60-year-old and older adults in Argentina. Using cross-sectional data from the Argentinian National Survey on Quality of Life of Older Adults 2012 (Encuesta Nacional sobre Calidad de Vida de Adultos Mayores, ENCaViAM), gender-specific socioeconomic inequalities in SRH and ADL and IADL limitations were studied in relation to educational level and household per capita income. The Relative Index of Inequality (RII) – an index of the relative size of socioeconomic inequalities in health – was used. Socioeconomic inequalities in the studied health indicators were found – except for limitations in ADL among women – favouring socially advantaged groups. The results remained largely significant after full adjustment, suggesting that educational and income inequalities, mainly in SRH and IADL, were robust and somehow independent of age, marital status, physical activity, the use of several medications, depression and the occurrence of falls. The findings add to the existing knowledge on the relative size of the socioeconomic inequalities in subjective health indicators among Argentinian older adults, which are to the detriment of lower socioeconomic groups. The results could be used to inform planning interventions aimed at decreasing socioeconomic inequalities in health, to the benefit of socially disadvantaged adults.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 49 , Issue 5 , September 2017 , pp. 597 - 610
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alazraqui, M., Diez Roux, A. V., Fleischer, N. & Spinelli, H. (2009) Self-rated health and social inequalities, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2005 [in Spanish]. Cadernos de Saúde Pública 25(9), 1990–2000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Assari, S. & Moghani Lankarani, M. (2015) Does multi-morbidity mediate the effect of socioeconomics on self-rated health? Cross-country differences. International Journal of Preventive Medicine 6, 85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bardage, C., Pluijm, S. M. F., Pedersen, N. L., Deeg, D. J. H., Jylhä, M., Noale, M. et al. (2005) Self-rated health among older adults: a cross-national comparison. European Journal of Ageing 2, 149–158.Google Scholar
Brandt, M., Deindl, C. & Hank, K. (2012) Tracing the origins of successful aging: the role of childhood conditions and social inequality in explaining later life health. Social Science & Medicine 74(9), 1418–1425.Google Scholar
Cardona, D., Acosta, L. D. & Bertone, C. L. (2013) Inequities in health among Latin American and Caribbean countries (2005–2010) [in Spanish]. Gaceta Sanitaria 27(4), 292–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CEPAL (2008) Transformaciones demográficas y su influencia en el desarrollo de América Latina y el Caribe. Comisión Económica, Santo Domingo.Google Scholar
Cramm, J. M., Bornscheuer, L., Selivanova, A. & Lee, J. (2015) The health of India’s elderly population: a comparative assessment using subjective and objective health outcomes. Population Ageing 8, 245–259.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dachs, J. N. W., Ferrer, M., Florez, C. E., Barros, A. J. D., Narváez, R. & Valdivia, M. (2002) Inequalities in health in Latin America and the Caribbean: descriptive and exploratory results for self-reported health problems and health care in twelve countries. Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública 11, 335–355.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De Maio, F. G. (2007) Health inequalities in Argentina: patterns, contradictions, and implications. Health Sociology Review 16, 279–291.Google Scholar
De Maio, F. G. (2008) Ecological analysis of the health effects of income inequality in Argentina. Public Health 122(5), 487–496.Google Scholar
De Maio, F. G., Linetzky, B., Ferrante, D. & Fleischer, N. L. (2012) Extending the income inequality hypothesis: ecological results from the 2005 and 2009 Argentine National Risk Factor Surveys. Global Public Health 7(6), 635–647.Google Scholar
Ernstsen, L., Heine Strand, B., Nilsen, S. M., Arild Espnes, G. & Krokstad, S. (2012) Trends in absolute and relative educational inequalities in four modifiable ischaemic heart disease risk factors: repeated cross-sectional surveys from the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT) 1984–2008. BMC Public Health 12, 266.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ferrante, D., Linetzky, B., Konfino, J., King, A., Virgolini, M. & Laspiur, S. (2011) 2009 National Risk Factors Survey: evolution of the epidemic of chronic non communicable diseases in Argentina. Cross sectional study [in Spanish]. Revista Argentina de Salud Pública 2(6), 34–41.Google Scholar
Franz, C. E., Finkel, D., Panizzon, M. S., Spoon, K., Christensen, K., Gatz, M. et al. (2016) Facets of subjective health from early adulthood to old age. Journal of Aging and Health, doi: 10.1177/0898264315625488.Google Scholar
Gasparini, L. (2007) Monitoring the socio-economic conditions in Argentina 1992–2006. Working Paper, Center for Distributional, Labor and Social Studies (CEDLAS), Universidad Nacional de La Plata. URL: www.depeco.econo.unlp.edu.ar/cedlas/monitoreo/pdfs/argentina.pdf (accessed 21st June 2016).Google Scholar
Haas, S. A. (2007) The long-term effects of poor childhood health: an assessment and application of retrospective reports. Demography 44(1), 113–135.Google Scholar
Hoffman, K. & Centeno, M. (2003) The lopsided continent: inequality in Latin America. Annual Review of Sociology 29, 363–390.Google Scholar
Hosseinpoor, A. R., Stewart Williams, J., Amin, A., Araujo de Carvalho, I., Beard, J., Boerma, T. et al. (2012) Social determinants of self-reported health in women and men: understanding the role of gender in population health. PLoS One 7(4), 1–9.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
INDEC (2010) Censo Nacional de Población, Hogares y Viviendas 2010. Censo del Bicentenario. Resultados definitivos. Series B, No. 2. Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires.Google Scholar
INDEC (2014) Encuesta Nacional sobre Calidad de Vida de Adultos Mayores 2012, 1st edition. Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires.Google Scholar
Judge, J., Schechtman, K. & Cress, E. (1996) The relationship between physical performance measures and independence in instrumental activities of daily living. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 44(11), 1332–1341.Google Scholar
Kahn, R. S., Wise, P. H., Kennedy, B. P. & Kawachi, I. (2000) State income inequality, household income, and maternal mental and physical health: cross sectional national survey. British Medical Journal 321(7272), 1311–1315.Google Scholar
Kawachi, I. & Kennedy, B. (1999) Income inequality and health: pathways and mechanisms. Health Services Research 34(1, part 2), 215–227.Google Scholar
Khang, Y.-H., Yun, S.-C. & Lynch, J. W. (2008) Monitoring trends in socioeconomic health inequalities: it matters how you measure. BMC Public Health 8, 66.Google Scholar
Kiadaliri, A. A., Asadi-Lari, M., Kalantari, N., Jafari, M., Mahdavi, M. R. V. & Faghihzadeh, S. (2015) Absolute and relative educational inequalities in obesity among adults in Tehran: findings from the Urban HEART Study-2. Obesity Research & Clinical Practice. doi: 10.1016/j.orcp.2015.05.002.Google Scholar
Kroll, L. E. (2013) RIIGEN: Stata Module to Generate Variables to Compute the Relative Index of Inequality. Boston College Department of Economics. URL: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:boc:bocode:s457736 (accessed 28th March 2016).Google Scholar
Kunst, A. E., Geurts, J. J. M. & van den Berg, J. (1995) International variation in socioeconomic inequalities in self reported health. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 49, 117–123.Google Scholar
Lantz, P. M., Lynch, J. W., House, J. S., Lepkowski, J. M., Mero, R. P., Musick, M. A. & Williams, D. R. (2001) Socioeconomic disparities in health change in a longitudinal study of US adults: the role of health-risk behaviors. Social Science & Medicine 53(1), 29–40.Google Scholar
Lee, Y. (2000) The predictive value of self assessed general, physical, and mental health on functional decline and mortality in older adults. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 54(2), 123–129.Google Scholar
Lima-Costa, M. F., De Oliveira, C., Macinko, J. & Marmot, M. (2012) Socioeconomic inequalities in health in older adults in Brazil and England. American Journal of Public Health 102(8), 1535–1541.Google Scholar
Lorant, V., Deliège, D., Eaton, W., Robert, A., Philippot, P. & Ansseau, M. (2003) Socioeconomic inequalities in depression: a meta-analysis. American Journal of Epidemiology 157(2), 98–112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lundberg, O. & Manderbacka, K. (1996) Assessing reliability of a measure of self-rated health. Scandinavian Journal of Social Medicine 24(3), 218–224.Google Scholar
Lynch, J., Davey Smith, G., Harper, S., Hillemeier, M., Ross, N., Kaplan, G. A. & Wolfson, M. (2004) Is income inequality a determinant of population health? Part 1. A systematic review. Milbank Quarterly 82(1), 5–99.Google Scholar
Mackenbach, J. P. (2012) The persistence of health inequalities in modern welfare states: the explanation of a paradox. Social Science & Medicine 75(4), 761–769.Google Scholar
Mackenbach, J. P. & Kunst, A. E. (1997) Measuring the magnitude of socio-economic inequalities in health: an overview of available measures illustrated with two examples from Europe. Social Science & Medicine 44(6), 757–771.Google Scholar
Manor, O., Matthews, S. & Power, C. (2000) Dichotomous or categorical response? Analysing self-rated health and lifetime social class. International Journal of Epidemiology 29(1), 149–157.Google Scholar
Manzelli, H. M. (2014) The relationship between adult mortality and educational attainment in Argentina. PhD thesis, University of Texas at Austin. URL: https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/26037.Google Scholar
Maurizio, R. (2014) Labour formalization and declining inequality in Argentina and Brazil in 2000s: a dynamic approach. International Labour Force. ILO Research Paper No.9.Google Scholar
Menec, V., Chipperfield, J. & Perry, R. (1999) Self-perceptions of health: a prospective analysis of mortality, control, and health. Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 54(2), 85–93.Google Scholar
Miilunpalo, S., Vuori, I., Oja, P., Pasanen, M. & Urponen, H. (1997) Self-rated health status as a health measure: the predictive value of self-reported health status on the use of physician services and on mortality in the working-age population. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 50(5), 517–528.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Minoldo, M. S. T., Zavattiero, C., Peláez, E. & Féliz, J. (2015) Contributory social security systems: equity as a pendent task. Discussions through the cases of Argentina, Paraguay and Dominican Republic [in Spanish]. Revista Latinoamericana de Población 9(16), 75–108.Google Scholar
Montero López, P., Fernández-Ballesteros, R., Zamarrón, M. D. & Rodríguez López, S. (2011) Anthropometric, body composition and health determinants of active ageing: a gender approach. Journal of Biosocial Science 43(5), 597–610.Google Scholar
Morales, M. & Paz Terán, C. (2010) Educational inequality in Argentina: the best and worst. Working Paper, Instituto de Estudios Laborales y del Desarrollo Económico (ielde), Universidad Nacional de Salta (UNSa), Argentina.Google Scholar
Moss, N. E. (2002) Gender equity and socioeconomic inequality: a framework for the patterning of women’s health. Social Science & Medicine 54, 649–661.Google Scholar
Palloni, A., Pinto-Aguirre, G. & Pelaez, M. (2002) Demographic and health conditions of ageing in Latin America. International Journal of Epidemiology 31(4), 762–771.Google Scholar
Pickett, K. E. & Wilkinson, R. G. (2015) Income inequality and health: a causal review. Social Science & Medicine 128, 316–326.Google Scholar
Qin, X. & Liu, G. (2013) Does the US health care safety net discourage private insurance coverage? European Journal of Health Economics 14(3), 457–469.Google Scholar
Reygadas, L. (2006) Latin America: persistent inequality and recent transformations. In Hershberg, E. & Rosen, F. (eds) Latin America after Neoliberalism: Turning the Tide in the 21st Century? The New Press, pp. 120–143.Google Scholar
Sen, A. (2002) Health: perception versus observation. British Medical Journal 324(7342), 860–861.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Singh-Manoux, A., Ferrie, J. E., Lynch, J. W. & Marmot, M. (2005) The role of cognitive ability (intelligence) in explaining the association between socioeconomic position and health: evidence from the Whitehall II prospective cohort study. American Journal of Epidemiology 161(9), 831–839.Google Scholar
Stuckler, D., Basu, S., Suhrcke, M. & McKee, M. (2009) The health implications of financial crisis: a review of the evidence. Ulster Medical Journal 78(3), 142–145.Google Scholar
UNESCO (2006) International Standard Classification of Education: ISCED 1997. Volume 5, re-edition. UNESCO, Canada.Google Scholar
Vagetti, G. C., Barbosa Filho, V. C., Moreira, N. B., Oliveira, V. d., Mazzardo, O. & Campos, W. d. (2014) Association between physical activity and quality of life in the elderly: a systematic review, 2000–2012. Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria 36, 76–88.Google Scholar
Verbrugge, L. (1985) Gender and health: an update on hypotheses and evidence. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 26(3), 156–182.Google Scholar
Vries, R., Blane, D. & Netuveli, G. (2014) Long-term exposure to income inequality: implications for physical functioning at older ages. European Journal of Ageing 11, 19–29.Google Scholar
Wagstaff, A. & van Doorslaer, E. (2000) Income inequality and health: what does the literature tell us? Annual Review of Public Health 21, 543–567.Google Scholar
WHO (2001) International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health: ICF. WHO Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data, Geneva.Google Scholar
WHO (2002) Active Ageing: A Policy Framework. WHO, Geneva.Google Scholar
Ziebarth, N. (2010) Measurement of health, health inequality, and reporting heterogeneity. Social Science & Medicine 71(1), 116–124.Google Scholar
Ziebarth, N. & Frick, J. (2010) Revisiting the Income–Health Nexus: The Importance of Choosing the ‘Right’ Indicator. Technical Report, SOEP papers 274/2010, DIW, Berlin.Google Scholar