Health in the cities: When the neighborhood matters more than income

Bilger, Marcel; Carrieri, Vincenzo

doi:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2012.09.010

Cited by 65 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…A potential explanation for the decrease in socioeconomic inequality in obesity over the past decade is that the societal environment has become a more important contributing factor to the increase in obesity rates than individual characteristics. This is in line with recent studies that show that the neighborhood has an independent effect on long‐term health outcomes (Ludwig et al 2012) and that such neighborhood effects can outweigh that of individual income (Bilger and Carrieri 2013). The modern ‘obesogenic’ environment, with its low‐cost, energy dense, mass‐prepared food and greater portion sizes is likely to have contributed to a higher prevalence and severity of obesity across all income groups (Zhang and Wang 2004).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Measuring Socioeconomic Inequality in Obesity: Looking Beyond the Obesity Threshold

2016

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We combine two of the most widely used measures in the inequality and poverty literature, the concentration index and Foster–Greer–Thorbecke metric to the analysis of socioeconomic inequality in obesity. This enables us to describe socioeconomic inequality not only in obesity status but also in its depth and severity. We apply our method to 1971–2012 US data and show that while the socioeconomic inequality in obesity status has now almost disappeared, this is not the case when depth and severity of obesity are considered. Such socioeconomic gradient is found to be greatest among non‐Hispanic whites, but decomposition analysis also reveals an inverse relationship between income and obesity outcomes among Mexican Americans once the effect of immigrant status has been accounted for. The socioeconomic gradient is also greater among women with marital status further increasing it for severity of obesity while the opposite is true among men. Overall, the socioeconomic gradient exists as poorer individuals lie further away from the obesity threshold. Our study stresses the need for policies that jointly consider obesity and income to support those who suffer from the double burden of poverty and obesity‐related health conditions. © 2016 The Authors. Health Economics Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Measuring Socioeconomic Inequality in Obesity: Looking Beyond the Obesity Threshold

2016

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“…While these results confirm previous evidence on the whole Italian population are in line with many other empirical studies (see Bilger and Carrieri 2012). Similar estimates across all three health models are also found regarding the relationship between housing conditions and health status.…”

Section: 5discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…SPH is widely used in the literature as a convenient aggregate of all aspects of health (Bilger and Carrieri 2012) and previous studies have shown SPH to be correlated with objective health measures such as mortality (Idler and Benyamini 1997). It is, by its very nature, subjective.…”

Section: Health Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Workers’ health and social relations in Italy

Fiorillo

2016

JES

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The paper investigates whether social relations are associated with the health of workers after controlling for demographic and worker characteristics, housing features, neighbourhood quality, size of municipality and regional dummies. We consider two level of social relationships: i) individual social relations that we proxy by the frequency of meetings with friends, and; ii) contextual social relations, the average frequency with which people meet friends at the community level. A Heckman selection model is estimated from the worker sample, employing both self-reported and objective health measures using new data from an income and living conditions survey carried out in 2006 by the Italian Statistics Office (IT-SILC). Results show that social relations at the individual level are positively correlated with self-perceived health, negatively associated with chronic condition but not related to limitations in daily activities. Contextual social relations are negatively linked with chronic condition and limitations in daily activities but not correlated with self-perceived health.JEL Codes: C35; I12; I18; Z1

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“…Whereas genetics and personal decisions influence physical well-being, so do external factors. Social networks and neighborhood characteristics have been found to affect an individual's health (see, e.g., Bilger & Carrieri, 2013;Katz, Kling, & Liebman, 2001;Smith & Christakis, 2008). Physical well-being examines how well a metropolitan area fosters the opportunity to be of good health.…”

Section: Communitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and Quality of Life in Cities

Peach

Petach

2015

Economic Development Quarterly

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Articulating the goals of economic development and defining quality of life has drawn the attention of influential thinkers from Socrates to Sen. Attempts to quantify and compare economies as they pertain to these concepts have largely focused on the macroeconomy. In this study, the Metropolitan Development Index is created to measure development and quality of life in large, urban areas in the United States. The researchers then test the sensitivity of city rankings to the data used in constructing the index. These tests indicate that the index is a substantive conception of development and quality of life. Additionally, the index is positively correlated with both economic prosperity and an individual's desire to reside in areas that offer higher levels of development and quality of life.

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Health in the cities: When the neighborhood matters more than income

Cited by 65 publications

References 52 publications

Measuring Socioeconomic Inequality in Obesity: Looking Beyond the Obesity Threshold

Measuring Socioeconomic Inequality in Obesity: Looking Beyond the Obesity Threshold

Workers’ health and social relations in Italy

Development and Quality of Life in Cities

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