Lecture 6

Income, inequality, and health

absolute

Materialist and neo-materialist theories emphasize _______ levels of resources

relative, position

Psychosocial theories emphasize ______ levels of resources, and how one’s social _______ defined by education and income impacts stress

healthier, disability

Everywhere we look, richer people are ______ and live longer ______-free lives

When several predictive variables are highly correlated with each other, making it difficult to ascertain the relative contribution of each to the outcome

→ Higher population income = better health but also higher education levels improved living conditions, improved housing, better diet, and safer…

What’s the collinearity problem?

The curvilinear relationship between income and life expectancy

What’s Preston curve?

• strongly, weakly

• affluent

• distribution

Preston argues that:

• A country’s GDP per capita correlates ______ with life expectancies in poorer countries but very ______ with life expectancies in richer ones

• Absolute income (total + average income) is the main consideration with regard to life expectancy only up until the population becomes relatively ______

• The ______ of available income matters more in affluent places

• mortality

• linear

• individual

Gerry Rodgers argued that:

• There is a correlation between infant _______ rates and country-level income inequality measures

• The relationship between income and life expectancy at the country-level is roughly _______

• At the ______ level, the relationship between income and life expectancy is asymptotic

• mortality

George Kaplan argued that:

• The income share of the lower half of the income distribution is strongly associated with the state-level _______ rate

• capital

• facts

• inequality

• hierarchies

Wilkinson’s theoretical synthesis drew from 4 sources:

• Social ______ theory from Robert Putnam

• Social ______ from Émile Durkheim

• Criminology and the findings that crime rates and anti social behaviour tend to reflect the extent of social ______

• Primatology and the stress responses of primates in troop ______

• unequal

• hierarchical

• social

• Stress, inferiors

  → biological

Wilkinson’s main findings were:

• Income distribution is a marker of how _______ a society is

• The size of income inequalities reflects how _______ the society is

• Big differences between individuals across society will diminish ______ capital → social breakdown

• _____ will be generated among the less well-off because they perceive their situation to be that of _____

  → Affects health through _______ pathways