Socio-economic inequality in Health : - An analysis of individuals over the age of 50 in the European population

Sammanfattning: I have considered how socio-economic status are related to different health outcomes among people older than 50 years in the population of Europe and Israel. The data originates from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (the SHARE-project) and offers the opportunity for an in-depth analysis through its information-rich content that includes over 100 different variables at the individual level, covering the years 2004-2017. I have specifically examined how the level of education and economic status, measured as financial stress, of an individual are correlated with two different dimensions of health. The models also consider how different childhood characteristics may be related to an individual’s health at an older age. In this analysis, health is measured as the number of chronic diseases and a quality of life index, CASP-12, and pooled negative binomial and linear regression models are used. Even though the models possess some caveats and disadvantages, the results suggest that there are statistically significant relationships between socio-economic variables and health. Low education and high financial stress are significantly associated with higher expected number of chronic diseases and a lower quality of life, compared to individuals with a higher educational attainment and low financial stress. Furthermore, the results indicate that childhood characteristics, such as poor childhood health, low socio-economic status of the family and investments in education have far-reaching effects on different health outcomes, even at an older age.