Income inequality and mortality: why are they related?

摘要

The long held belief that household income is an important indicator of risk of death has recently received strong support from a series of large prospective studies. Income inequality within a population has also been suggested to be an important determinant of population mortality. In a cross national comparison, Rodgers found associations between income inequality and three mortality indicators-infant mortality, life expectancy at birth, and life expectancy at age 5-after taking overall gross national product into account. Several replications of this, across both a wide range of countries and within industrialised nations alone, using a variety of health indicators, have appeared. These studies have related income inequality to infant mortality, life expectancy, height, and morbidity, with a consistent finding that the less equitable the income distribution in a country, the less favourable the health outcome.