Income major factor in health, says study
By MARCUS BROGDEN
20 March 2006
No matter how much money is invested in the Health sector, research indicates that the wealthier you are the healthier you are likely to be.
A team of Otago University researchers, in its latest Study, have quantified the benefit to the health of certain socioeconomic groups, of levelling the discrepancies in income.
And the benefits are simple: reduce Inequalities in pay, and you'll reduce inequalities in Death rates.
The study – which claims to be the first in the world to quantify the potential benefits – used data from 1.3 million 25-59 year old 1996 census respondents to determine the risk of death for different levels of income.
Researchers concluded overall Death Rates could be reduced by 2 per cent to 13 per cent, if everyone's income shifted by 10 per cent to 40 per cent towards the average New Zealand income.
". . .you can't escape the fact that narrowing income distributions by taxation and other means should modestly reduce the country's overall death rate and notably reduce inequalities in death rates," associate professor Tony Blakely said.
Even more strikingly, current inequalities in death rates – between rich and poor – should be reduced by 6 per cent to 38 per cent with the same shifts, he said.
"Economists, Treasury and high-level policy-makers can no longer ignore the fact that income redistribution matters for both the overall death rate and inequalities in death rates."
Mr Blakely added although inequalities in health would be reduced by income redistribution, "it is not the panacea."
He has called for interventions at a range of levels – "including those targeting known risk factors such as tobacco and poor nutrition".
The study is published in the latest issue of Social Science and Medicine and is part of the ongoing New Zealand Census-Mortality Study undertaken at Otago University's Wellington School of Medicine & Health Sciences.
In a study released last December, researchers looked at the impact poverty has on New Zealand's child mortality rate, with children from lower income households more likely to die than those from medium or high income households.
The study examined the deaths of about 2250 children who died between 1981 and 1999 for the contribution of causes of death and socio-economic inequalities in child mortality.
By MARCUS BROGDEN
20 March 2006
No matter how much money is invested in the Health sector, research indicates that the wealthier you are the healthier you are likely to be.
A team of Otago University researchers, in its latest Study, have quantified the benefit to the health of certain socioeconomic groups, of levelling the discrepancies in income.
And the benefits are simple: reduce Inequalities in pay, and you'll reduce inequalities in Death rates.
The study – which claims to be the first in the world to quantify the potential benefits – used data from 1.3 million 25-59 year old 1996 census respondents to determine the risk of death for different levels of income.
Researchers concluded overall Death Rates could be reduced by 2 per cent to 13 per cent, if everyone's income shifted by 10 per cent to 40 per cent towards the average New Zealand income.
". . .you can't escape the fact that narrowing income distributions by taxation and other means should modestly reduce the country's overall death rate and notably reduce inequalities in death rates," associate professor Tony Blakely said.
Even more strikingly, current inequalities in death rates – between rich and poor – should be reduced by 6 per cent to 38 per cent with the same shifts, he said.
"Economists, Treasury and high-level policy-makers can no longer ignore the fact that income redistribution matters for both the overall death rate and inequalities in death rates."
Mr Blakely added although inequalities in health would be reduced by income redistribution, "it is not the panacea."
He has called for interventions at a range of levels – "including those targeting known risk factors such as tobacco and poor nutrition".
The study is published in the latest issue of Social Science and Medicine and is part of the ongoing New Zealand Census-Mortality Study undertaken at Otago University's Wellington School of Medicine & Health Sciences.
In a study released last December, researchers looked at the impact poverty has on New Zealand's child mortality rate, with children from lower income households more likely to die than those from medium or high income households.
The study examined the deaths of about 2250 children who died between 1981 and 1999 for the contribution of causes of death and socio-economic inequalities in child mortality.
