Understanding the role of welfare state characteristics for health and inequalities – an analytical review

BMC Public Health

Table 5 Descriptives of the geographical comparisons group

Descriptive measure	N (author)
Data used
- SHARE	2 (Ploubidis, Avendano)
- OECD, WHO, UN	1 (Granados)
- Register data	1 (Hoffmann*)
- Census	1 (Olafsdottir*)
- Interview survey	1 (Kunst*)
Health outcome
- Self-rated health	4 (Olafsdottir, Kunst, Ploubidis, Avendano)
- Longstanding limiting illness	1 (Avendano*)
- ≥1 chronic disease.	1 (Avendano*)
- ≥1 activity limitation.	1 (Avendano*)
- Depressive symptoms/depression	1 (Avendano*)
- Infant mortality	1 (Granados)
- Life expectancy	1 (Granados)
- Age specific death rate	1 (Granados)
- Mortality rate	1 (Hoffmann*)
Health outcome
- Morbidity	8
- Mortality	4
Measures inequality (total)	5 (Olafsdottir, Kunst, Ploubidis, Avendano, Hoffmann*)
- SEP (social class)	3 (Olafsdottir, Kunst, Hoffmann*)
- Education	1 (Avendano*)
- Gini coefficient	1 (Ploubidis*)

Many articles examined multiple outcomes and hence the number of studies using the different health outcomes (12) is greater than the number of studies (n = 6).
Mortality measures include: life expectancy, infant mortality, mortality rate, age specific death rate.
Morbidity measures include: self-rated health, limiting longstanding illness/morbidity/disability, depression/depressive symptoms, ≥1 chronic disease, ≥1 activity limitation.
* = Studies with an inequalities perspective.

ISSN: 1471-2458