Income Inequality and Mental Health—empirical Evidence From Australia

Abstract

The causal association between absolute income and health is well-established; however, the relationship between income inequality and health is not. The conclusions from the received studies vary across the region or country studied and/or the methodology employed. Using the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia panel survey, this paper investigates the relationship between mental health and inequality in Australia. A variety of income inequality indices are calculated to test both the income inequality and relative deprivation hypotheses. We find that mental health is only adversely affected by the presence of relative deprivation to a very small degree. In addition, we do not find support for the income inequality hypothesis. Importantly, our results are robust to a number of sensitivity analyses.

Income inequality and mental illness-related morbidity and resilience: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Eight articles reported results from multi-country studies 12,27,29,[31][32][33][34][35] ; ten studies were conducted in the USA 28,30,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] ; three studies were carried out in the UK [44][45][46] ; two articles reported results from a study carried out in Brazil 47,48 ; one study was conducted in Australia 49 , one in Mexico 50 , one in Spain 51 , and one in South Africa 26 (Table 1).…”

“…One article included university students 35 , one included 11, 13 and 15-year-old students 31 and one sampled women with infant children 40 . Twenty-two articles assessed psychiatric diagnoses 12,[26][27][28][29][30]32,[34][35][36][37][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47] , whereas three assessed psychological distress/symptoms or mental well-being/functioning 31,33,49 . One article assessed both psychiatric diagnosis and psychological symptoms 38 , and one article reported use of mental health services 48 .…”

“…One article assessed both psychiatric diagnosis and psychological symptoms 38 , and one article reported use of mental health services 48 . Twenty-three articles assessed income inequality using the Gini index 12,27-38,42,45,49 -one of them 49 also included Thail and Atkinson indexes. One article reported area percentage of households with income over $150,000 as a measure of income inequality 43 , and one article reported the ration of mean income of the top 10% to the bottom 10% earners 26 .…”

“…Nine articles [26][27][28]31,32,35,40,45,49 reported that the prevalence/incidence of mental health problems was higher in areas with greater income inequality. These studies assessed depression 28,37,41,51 , psychological distress/symptoms 31 and psychosis 26,27,32,45 .…”

“…Ten articles reported mixed results: four of them found that greater income inequality was associated with higher prevalence/incidence of mental health problems in some population subgroups 29,30,36,40 , such as females 30 or low-income groups 36 or countries with high HDI 29 ; one article 47 reported that income inequality was associated with depression, but not with anxiety or any mental disorders; one article 44 reported that greater income inequality was associated with lower prevalence of common mental disorders at community level, and higher prevalence at region level; one article 12 found association at country level, and only among women and children at state level; in one article 46 greater income inequality was associated with higher prevalence of common mental disorders in high-income areas, and with lower prevalence in low-income areas. Eight articles 34,38,39,42,43,[49][50][51] found nonsignificant associations.…”