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Lookup NU author(s): Emerita Professor Carol Jagger
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Background Social differentials in disability prevalence exist in all European countries, but their scale varies markedly. To improve understanding of this variation, the article focuses on each end of the social gradient. It compares the extent of the higher disability prevalence in low social groups (referred to as disability disadvantage) and of the lower prevalence in high social groups (disability advantage); country-specific advantages/disadvantages are discussed regarding the possible influence of welfare regimes.Methods Cross-sectional disability prevalence is measured by longstanding health-related activity limitation (AL) in the 2009 European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) across 26 countries classified into four welfare regime groups. Logistic models adjusted by country, age and sex (in all 30-79years and in three age-bands) measured the country-specific ORs across education, representing the AL-disadvantage of low-educated and AL-advantage of high-educated groups relative to middle-educated groups.Results The relative AL-disadvantage of the low-educated groups was small in Sweden (eg, 1.2 (1.0-1.4)), Finland, Romania, Bulgaria and Spain (youngest age-band), but was large in the Czech Republic (eg, 1.9 (1.7-2.2)), Denmark, Belgium, Italy and Hungary. The high-educated groups had a small relative AL-advantage in Denmark (eg, 0.9 (0.8-1.1)), but a large AL-advantage in Lithuania (eg, 0.5 (0.4-0.6)), half of the Baltic and Eastern European countries, Norway and Germany (youngest age-band). There were notable differences within welfare regime groups.Conclusions The country-specific disability advantages/disadvantages across educational groups identified here could help to identify determining factors and the efficiency of national policies implemented to tackle social differentials in health.
Author(s): Cambois E, Sole-Auro A, Bronnum-Hansen H, Egidi V, Jagger C, Jeune B, Nusselder WJ, Van Oyen H, White C, Robine JM
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health
Year: 2016
Volume: 70
Issue: 4
Pages: 331-338
Print publication date: 01/04/2016
Online publication date: 06/11/2015
Acceptance date: 09/10/2015
Date deposited: 04/05/2016
ISSN (print): 0143-005X
ISSN (electronic): 1470-2738
Publisher: BMJ Group
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech-2015-205978
DOI: 10.1136/jech-2015-205978
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