Research Article

Does income-related health inequality change as the population ages? Evidence from Swedish panel data

  1. M. Kamrul Islam1,*,
  2. Ulf-G. Gerdtham2,3,4,
  3. Philip Clarke5,
  4. Kristina Burström6,7

Article first published online: 15 APR 2009

DOI: 10.1002/hec.1479

Issue

Health Economics

Health Economics

Volume 19, Issue 3, pages 334–349, March 2010

Additional Information

How to Cite

Islam, M. K., Gerdtham, U.-G., Clarke, P. and Burström, K. (2010), Does income-related health inequality change as the population ages? Evidence from Swedish panel data. Health Economics, 19: 334–349. doi: 10.1002/hec.1479

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Economics, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

  2. 2

    Health Economics Research Unit (HERU), University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland

  3. 3

    Department of Economics, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland

  4. 4

    Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden

  5. 5

    School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

  6. 6

    Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

  7. 7

    Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

*Department of Economics, University of Bergen, Fosswinckels gate 14, N-5007 Bergen, Norway

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 8 FEB 2010
  2. Article first published online: 15 APR 2009
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 13 FEB 2009
  4. Manuscript Revised: 27 JAN 2009
  5. Manuscript Received: 1 JUN 2007

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Keywords:

  • aging;
  • health inequality;
  • concentration index;
  • decomposition;
  • panel data

Abstract

This paper explains and empirically assesses the channels through which population aging may impact on income-related health inequality. Long panel data of Swedish individuals is used to estimate the observed trend in income-related health inequality, measured by the concentration index (CI). A decomposition procedure based on a fixed effects model is used to clarify the channels by which population aging affects health inequality. Based on current income rankings, we find that conventional unstandardized and age–gender-standardized CIs increase over time. This trend in CIs is, however, found to remain stable when people are instead ranked according to lifetime (mean) income. Decomposition analyses show that two channels are responsible for the upward trend in unstandardized CIs – retired people dropped in relative income ranking and the coefficient of variation of health increases as the population ages. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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