Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30426063›Full record

ArticleSSM - population health2018

Transnational wealth-related health inequality measurement.

Mathieu J P Poirier, Michel Grignon, Karen A Grépin, Michelle L Dion

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in SSM - population health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Mathieu J P PoirierDepartment of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Michel GrignonDepartment of Economics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Karen A GrépinDepartment of Health Sciences, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Michelle L DionDepartment of Political Science, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The study of international differences in wealth-related health inequalities has traditionally consisted of country-by-country comparisons using own-country relative measures of socioeconomic status, which effectively ignores absolute differences in both wealth and health that can differ between and within countries. To address these limitations, we propose an alternative approach: that of constructing a transnational measure of wealth-related health inequality. To illustrate the limitations of the country-by-country approach, we simulate the impact of changes in wealth and health inequalities both between and within countries on cross-country measures of health inequality and find at least five errors that may arise using country-by-country methods. We then empirically demonstrate the transnational approach to wealth-related health inequalities between and within Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the two constituent countries of the island of Hispaniola, using data from their respective Demographic and Health Surveys. Transnational socioeconomic rankings reveal a large and increasing divergence in wealth between the two countries, which would be ignored using the county-by-country approach. We find that wealth-related inequalities in long-term children's health outcomes are larger than inequalities in short-term health outcomes, and decompositions of the influence of place-based variables on these inequalities reveal country of residence to be the most important factor for long-term outcomes, while urban/rural residence and subnational regions are more important for short-term health outcomes. The significance of this novel methodological approach in relation to conventional health inequality research, including hidden dimensions of wealth-related health inequalities, for example the urbanized "middle class" distribution of HIV and a hidden unequal burden of wasting among children uncovered by the transnational approach are discussed, and errors in gauging changes in inequality over time using a country-by-country approach are highlighted. Using the transnational approach can help to measure important trends in wealth-related health inequalities across countries that more commonly used methods traditionally overlook.

Indexed as

Demographic and Health SurveysHealth InequalitiesHispaniolaHousehold Asset IndexTransnational Analysis

Identifiers

PMID30426063
PMCPMC6222170

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.