scholarly journals The Portuguese Version of the European Deprivation Index: An Instrument to Study Health Inequalities

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Isabel Ribeiro ◽  
Alexandra Mayer ◽  
Ana Miranda ◽  
Maria de Fátima De Pina
Keyword(s):  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Deprivation Index ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Geographic Pattern ◽  
Portuguese Version ◽  
Public Health Challenge ◽  
Area Unit ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Socioeconomic Health Inequalities ◽  
Deprived Areas

Introduction: Tackling socioeconomic health inequalities is a big public health challenge and ecological deprivation indexes are essential instruments to monitor and understand them. In Portugal, no standard ecological deprivation index exists, contrasting with other countries. We aimed to describe the construction of the Portuguese version of a transnational deprivation index, European Deprivation Index.Material and Methods: The European Deprivation Index was developed under the Townsend theorization of deprivation. Using data from the European Union - Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Survey, we obtained an indicator of individual deprivation. This indicator became the gold-standard variable, based on what we selected the variables at aggregate level (census) to be included in the European Deprivation Index, a total of eight. The European Deprivation Index was produced for the smallest area unit possible (n = 16 094, mean/area = 643 inhabitants) and resulted from the weighted sum of the previous variables. It was then classified into quintiles.Results: The first quintile (least deprived) comprised 20.9% national population and the fifth quintile (most deprived) 18.0%. The European Deprivation Index showed a clear geographic pattern – most deprived areas concentrated in the South and in the inner North and Centre of the country, and the least deprived areas in the coastal areas of North and Centre and in the Algarve.Discussion: The development of the European Deprivation Index was grounded on a solid theoretical framework, individual and aggregate variables, and on a longitudinal Europe-wide survey allowing its replication over the time and in any European country.Conclusion: Hopefully, the European Deprivation Index will start being employed by those interested in better understand health inequalities not only in Portugal but across Europe.

scholarly journals Developing a deprivation index to study geographical health inequalities in Ecuador

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 97
Author(s):  
Andrés Peralta ◽  
Verónica Espinel-Flores ◽  
Mercè Gotsens ◽  
Glòria Pérez ◽  
Joan Benach ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Deprivation Index ◽  
Population Census ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Poisson Regression Model ◽  
Geographic Pattern ◽  
Standardised Mortality Ratios

OBJECTIVES: To develop a deprivation index to study health inequalities in 221 areas of Ecuador, to describe the pattern of deprivation in Ecuador, and to explore the applications of the index to study health inequalities by analysing the association between deprivation and mortality in the study areas. METHODS: We performed principal component analyses of available indicators of the 221 cantons of Ecuador. A set of 41 sociodemographic, social capital, and subjective well-being variables were obtained from the 2010 National Population Census and the National Living Conditions Survey 2013–2014. To explore the application of the index in public health, the association between the index and standardised mortality ratios was estimated through a Poisson regression model. RESULTS: The final index was constructed with 17 indicators. The first component explained 51.8% of the total variance of the data. A geographic pattern and a positive association of the index with the standardised mortality ratios of the cantons were observed in both men and women. CONCLUSIONS: We constructed a deprivation index that can identify disadvantaged areas in Ecuador. This index could be a valuable tool for the detection of vulnerabilised populations and the development of interventions and policies adapted to local needs.

The Global Digital Divide

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederico Cruz-Jesus ◽  
Tiago Oliveira ◽  
Fernando Bacao
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Digital Divide ◽  
English Language ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Digital Development ◽  
Global Digital Divide ◽  
Using Data ◽  
India And China

This article presents an analysis of the global digital divide, based on data collected from 45 countries, including the ones belonging to the European Union, OECD, Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC). The analysis shows that one factor can explain a large part of the variation in the seven ICT variables used to measure the digital development of countries. This measure is then used with additional variables, which are hypothesised as drivers of the divide for a regression analysis using data from 2015, 2013, and 2011, which reveals economic and educational imbalances between countries, along with some aspects of geography, as drivers of the digital divide. Contrary to the authors' expectations, the English language is not a driver.

scholarly journals Is Loneliness an Undervalued Pathway between Socio-Economic Disadvantage and Health?

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (19) ◽  
pp. 10177
Author(s):  
Rachelle Meisters ◽  
Polina Putrik ◽  
Daan Westra ◽  
Hans Bosma ◽  
Dirk Ruwaard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Social Determinant ◽  
Poor Health ◽  
Public Health Issue ◽  
Economic Disadvantage ◽  
Self Rated Health ◽  
Socioeconomic Health Inequalities

Loneliness is a growing public health issue. It is more common in disadvantaged groups and has been associated with a range of poor health outcomes. Loneliness may also form an independent pathway between socio-economic disadvantage and poor health. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the contribution of loneliness to socio-economic health inequalities. These contributions were studied in a Dutch national sample (n = 445,748 adults (≥19 y.o.)) in Poisson and logistic regression models, controlling for age, gender, marital status, migration background, BMI, alcohol consumption, smoking, and physical activity. Loneliness explained 21% of socioeconomic health inequalities between the lowest and highest socio-economic groups in self-reported chronic disease prevalence, 27% in poorer self-rated health, and 51% in psychological distress. Subgroup analyses revealed that for young adults, loneliness had a larger contribution to socioeconomic gaps in self-rated health (37%) than in 80+-year-olds (16%). Our findings suggest that loneliness may be a social determinant of health, contributing to the socioeconomic health gap independently of well-documented factors such as lifestyles and demographics, in particular for young adults. Public health policies targeting socioeconomic health inequalities could benefit from integrating loneliness into their policies, especially for young adults.

scholarly journals Greenspace availability or greenspace usability, which matters on PM2.5-related premature deaths: evidence from 360 cities in China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingru Yang ◽  
Yijin Wang ◽  
Fangzheng Li ◽  
Yuge Xie ◽  
Xiaoli Wang
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Respiratory Health ◽  
Health Impact ◽  
Deprivation Index ◽  
Rural Regions ◽  
Premature Deaths ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
Deprived Areas

Abstract Greenspace exposure is confirmed to reduce air pollution-related negative health impact. However, which type of greenspace exposure matters more on mitigating air pollution-related deaths and whether this effect is regionally different remain unclear. Here we show, greenspace usability exposure plays a more significant role in mitigating PM2.5-related premature deaths in 360 China cities generally speaking. By clustering 360 cities into urban-rural and Deprivation Index groups, we further find that greenspace availability and usability together work on respiratory health in rural regions, and greenspace availability matters more in very low deprived areas or urban and rural regions. Our results that increasing greenspace usability exposure is more helpful in reducing air pollution-related premature deaths may inform more effective and equitable greenspace planning policies in rapidly developing countries like China.

scholarly journals Are undocumented migrants’ entitlements and barriers to healthcare a public health challenge for the European Union?

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabetta De Vito ◽  
Chiara de Waure ◽  
Maria Lucia Specchia ◽  
Paolo Parente ◽  
Elena Azzolini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
European Union ◽  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Health Challenge ◽  
Public Health Challenge ◽  
Barriers To Healthcare

Institutional trust and multilevel government in the European Union: Congruence or compensation?

2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 551-574 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordi Muñoz ◽  
Mariano Torcal ◽  
Eduard Bonet
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Hierarchical Linear Modeling ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Linear Modeling ◽  
Country Level ◽  
National Institutions ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Eu

Does trust in national institutions foster or hinder trust in the institutions of the European Union (EU)? There is no agreement in the literature on popular support for the EU about the direction of the relationship between trust in national and European institutions. Some scholars argue that both will be positively related, others have proposed the opposite hypothesis: low levels of trust in national institutions will lead citizens to higher levels of support for the EU. We argue that both hypotheses are true but operate at different levels: whereas more trusting citizens tend to be so in both the national and the European arenas, we also find that at the country level the relationship is negative: living in a country with highly trusted and well-performing institutions hinders trust in the European Parliament. We test our hypotheses using data from the European Social Survey and Hierarchical Linear Modeling.

scholarly journals Educational Inequalities in Self-Rated Health in Europe and South Korea

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (12) ◽  
pp. 4504
Author(s):  
Minhye Kim ◽  
Young-Ho Khang ◽  
Hee-Yeon Kang ◽  
Hwa-Kyung Lim
Keyword(s):  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Outcome Variable ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Relative Index ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Adult Men ◽  
Self Rated Health ◽  
Health And Nutrition ◽  
Index Of Inequality ◽  
High Level

While numerous comparative works on the magnitude of health inequalities in Europe have been conducted, there is a paucity of research that encompasses non-European nations such as Asian countries. This study was conducted to compare Europe and Korea in terms of educational health inequalities, with poor self-rated health (SRH) as the outcome variable. The European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions and the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2017 were used (31 countries). Adult men and women aged 20+ years were included (207,245 men and 238,007 women). The age-standardized, sex-specific prevalence of poor SRH by educational level was computed. The slope index of inequality (SII) and relative index of inequality (RII) were calculated. The prevalence of poor SRH was higher in Korea than in other countries for both low/middle- and highly educated individuals. Among highly educated Koreans, the proportion of less healthy women was higher than that of less healthy men. Korea’s SII was the highest for men (15.7%) and the ninth-highest for women (10.4%). In contrast, Korea’s RII was the third-lowest for men (3.27), and the lowest among women (1.98). This high-SII–low-RII mix seems to have been generated by the high level of baseline poor SRH.

scholarly journals TECHNOLOGICAL ASSIMILATION AND DIVERGENCE IN TIMES OF CRISIS

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel ÁLVAREZ ◽  
Debora DI CAPRIO ◽  
Francisco Javier SANTOS-ARTEAGA
Keyword(s):  
Adaptive Learning ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Arrival Rate ◽  
Technological Knowledge ◽  
Growth Patterns ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Factor Productivity ◽  
Development Level ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Baltic

We study an endogenous stochastic growth model whose dynamic evolution is determined by an adaptive learning process defining the accumulation of technological knowledge within countries. Both the assimilation of technological knowledge and the arrival rate of innovations depend on the technological development level of countries. We illustrate how heterogeneous levels of technological development provide laggard countries with insufficient innovation incentives, leading to divergences in total factor productivity and their technological stagnation. The model is simulated numerically using data from the current Innovation Union Scoreboard where the main expected growth patterns of the Baltic States are compared to those of the reference innovators within the European Union area.

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