The Influence of Socio-Economic Factors on Health: the role of absolute or relative deprivation

Abstract

The existence of socio-economic differences in health figures have beenconfirmed in many studies. What is less clear, however, is whether thesedifferences are caused by absolute material or relative deprivation. Thisarticle aims offer an answer this very question. Using the Russian LongitudinalMonitoring Survey (RLMS) of 2011 as the main informational base,health statistics were analyzed through the use of multivariate logistic regressionmodels. It was found that socio-economic health differences weredue to absolute material deprivation for women, while men, on the contrary,were more connected factors relating to relative deprivation. These resultsonce again confirm the conclusion that in order to overcome negativehealth trends in Russia it is not only necessary to reduce absolute povertybut also to lower socio-economic inequalities.