Illustrating a 'consequential' shift in the study of health inequalities: a decomposition of racial differences in the distribution of body mass

摘要

Purpose: We present a conceptual introduction to "distributional inequalities" differences in distributions of risk factors or other outcomes between social groups as a consequential shift for research on health inequalities. We also review a companion analytical methodology, "distributional decomposition", which can assess the population characteristics that explain distributional inequalities.