[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cep/sticas/case109.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Understanding socio-economic inequalities in childhood respiratory health

Author

Listed:
  • Carol Propper
  • John A. Rigg
Abstract
Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood. Recent evidence has shown a socio-economic gradient in its distribution. This paper examines whether a number of factors argued to have led to a rise in the incidence of asthma might also explain the social gradient. Several of these have been the object of policy intervention, though not necessarily with the aim of lowering childhood respiratory conditions. Using a large cohort study (the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children) we find significant inequalities in three respiratory conditions in middle childhood. We investigate eight potential mediating factors: exposure to other children in infancy, child's diet, poor housing conditions, maternal smoking, parental history of asthma, poor child health at birth, maternal age at child's birth and local deprivation. We find that each of these alone typically explains a relatively modest part of each respiratory inequality, with child's diet, local deprivation and maternal smoking generally the most important. But taken together, the mediating factors account for a substantial part of the respiratory inequalities. So the socio-economic gradient appears to operate through a number of inter-correlated pathways, some of which may be amenable to policy intervention.

Suggested Citation

  • Carol Propper & John A. Rigg, 2006. "Understanding socio-economic inequalities in childhood respiratory health," CASE Papers case109, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:sticas:case109
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/cp/CASEpaper109.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anne Case & Darren Lubotsky & Christina Paxson, 2002. "Economic Status and Health in Childhood: The Origins of the Gradient," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1308-1334, December.
    2. Currie, Alison & Shields, Michael A. & Wheatley Price, Stephen, 2004. "Is the Child Health / Family Income Gradient Universal? Evidence from England," IZA Discussion Papers 1328, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rachel Susan Webb & Andrea Menclova, 2013. "Home Heating and Asthma in New Zealand," Working Papers in Economics 13/17, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. James P. Smith & Yan Shen & John Strauss & Yang Zhe & Yaohui Zhao, 2012. "The Effects of Childhood Health on Adult Health and SES in China," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(1), pages 127-156.
    2. Doyle, Orla & Harmon, Colm P. & Walker, Ian, 2005. "The Impact of Parental Income and Education on the Health of their Children," IZA Discussion Papers 1832, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Propper, Carol & Rigg, John A. & Burgess, Simon, 2005. "Health supplier quality and the distribution of child health," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 6252, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Byaro, Mwoya & Mpeta, Daniel, 2021. "Secondary Education and its Effects on Child Health: Empirical Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," African Journal of Economic Review, African Journal of Economic Review, vol. 9(2), April.
    5. Costa-Font, Joan & Gil, Joan, 2013. "Intergenerational and socioeconomic gradients of child obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 29-37.
    6. Michael Lokshin & Martin Ravallion, 2008. "Testing for an economic gradient in health status using subjective data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(11), pages 1237-1259, November.
    7. James P. Smith, 2009. "The Impact of Childhood Health on Adult Labor Market Outcomes," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 91(3), pages 478-489, August.
    8. Costa-i-Font, Joan & Gil, Joan, 2013. "Intergenerational and socioeconomic gradients of childhood obesity," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 49487, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. PJ Lucas & SF Dowling & C Joughin & G Laing & K McIntosh & J Newbery & A Shiell & M Petticrew & H Roberts, 2006. "PROTOCOL: Financial benefits for child health and well‐being in low income or socially disadvantaged families in developed world countries," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 2(1), pages 1-19.
    10. Charles Link & Simon Condliffe, 2005. "Why Does the Relationship between Economic Status and Child Health Strengthen for Older Children in the U.S.? Evidence from the Medical Expenditures Panel Survey and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics," Working Papers 05-18, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    11. Lefebvre, Pierre, 2006. "Le gradient santé / revenu familial des nouveau-nés québécois de 1998 après quatre ans : faible ou inexistant?," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 82(4), pages 523-595, décembre.
    12. Björn Bartling & Ernst Fehr & Daniel Schunk, 2012. "Health effects on children’s willingness to compete," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 15(1), pages 58-70, March.
    13. Paul Frijters & Michael A. Shields & Stephen Wheatley Price & Jenny Williams, 2011. "Quantifying the cost of passive smoking on child health: evidence from children's cotinine samples," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 174(1), pages 195-212, January.
    14. Carol Propper & John Rigg & Simon Burgess, 2007. "Child health: evidence on the roles of family income and maternal mental health from a UK birth cohort," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(11), pages 1245-1269, November.
    15. repec:ran:wpaper:809 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Lokshin, Michael & Ravallion, Martin, 2005. "Searching for the economic gradient in self-assessed health," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3698, The World Bank.
    17. Salm, Martin & Schunk, Daniel, 2008. "The Role of Childhood Health for the Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital: Evidence from Administrative Data," IZA Discussion Papers 3646, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Orla Doyle & Colm Harmon & Ian Walker, 2007. "The Impact of Parental Income and Education on Child Health. Further Evidence for England," Working Papers 200706, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    19. Michael Lokshin & Martin Ravallion, 2008. "Testing for an economic gradient in health status using subjective data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(11), pages 1237-1259.
    20. Patricia J. Lucas & Karen McIntosh & Mark Petticrew & Helen M. Roberts & Alan Shiell, 2008. "Financial Benefits for Child Health and Well‐Being in Low Income or Socially Disadvantaged Families in Developed World Countries," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 4(1), pages 1-93.
    21. Carol Propper & John Rigg & Simon Burgess, 2007. "Child health: evidence on the roles of family income and maternal mental health from a UK birth cohort," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(11), pages 1245-1269.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Asthma; wheeze; socio-economic inequalities; mediating;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cep:sticas:case109. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/case/_new/publications/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.