Abstract

RODRIGUEZ ACOSTA, Sandra. Income inequality and health in Colombia. Perf. latinoam. [online]. 2016, vol.24, n.48, pp.265-296. ISSN 0188-7653.  https://doi.org/10.18504/pl2448-011-2016.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to examine independent of the individual socioeconomic status, the effect of the contextual economic conditions on the self-rated health and, second, to explore region-level mechanisms that could explain the influence of the structural economic conditions on the low self-rated health status. For this, we use a multilevel analysis that allows us to distinguish between the individual and the contextual factors influencing the self-rated health. The results show that the socioeconomic status is an important determinant of the self-rated health of population in Colombia. However, significant differences remain in the health perception, even after controlling for individual wealth, education level and ethnicity. These differences only disappear when controlling for income inequality in the analysis.

Keywords : Self-rated health; income inequality; health determinants; multilevel analysis; socioeconomic status.

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