Income Inequality and Health Outcomes Among Ten Asian Countries, 1990-2016

Abstract

Background: The mixed findings on the associations between income disparities and health remains controversial and raises concerns among health policy makers and authorities, since it affects population health as well as social welfare. A cross-sectional time-series study was conducted to contribute to the debate with data from 10 Asian countries during the 1990-2016 period, which was disaggregated into a sub-sample of countries with different levels of income. Methods: Data were obtained from the World Bank database. Gini coefficients were used to measure the income inequality. Health outcome variables were infant mortality, under-5 mortality, and life expectancy at birth. The multivariate fixed-effect and pooled-OLS regressions were applied to examine the association between income inequality and health outcomes. Results: Thailand and Malaysia had the highest level of income inequality, whereas Japan and Korea had the lowest levels. Income inequality has positive effects on mortality rates and negative effects on life expectancy at birth. The other factors also appeared to be determinants of health status. These findings were consistent with other studies, which implied that other factors, rather than income inequality, were associated with health outcomes. Conclusion: Future policies should be tailored to tackle the factors affecting the income inequalities.